Legend of Kratos: Mithos' Mask
by freakyanimegal
Summary: LOK? Sequel. Our poor Seraph has been bullied into another journey by Anna, this time with the brunette tagging along herself. Their goal? Harness the power of time. The problem? A skull-kid with and attitude problem and a freaky mask salesman... hiatus
1. Chapter 1

**We're BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKKK!! n.n**

**Lloyd: OH NO!**

**Kratos:...Damn.**

**Genis: O.O Kratos?! What're you doing here?**

**Kratos: About to get tortured some more by this psychotic author.**

**Me: Hey, I needed a substitute, Cheresea's on vacation.**

**Kratos: Who?**

**(Meanwhile)**

**Cheresea: HAWAII! SKLEE! Ber-mu-da, Ba-ha-ma, come on pret-ty- ma-ma!**

**(Back to us)**

**Lloyd: ...Who is she again, Freaky?**

**Me: Your daughter from an AU 2nd generation series I have.**

**Genis: Geez, Lloyd! You should know that, you're her muse for that story too!**

**Lloyd:Aren't you the muse for her crackfic?**

**Genis: Oh boy, am I ever...--' Not to mention this story is SO late-**

**Me: SHUT UP! Disclaimer, NOW!**

**Kratos: Tch. Freakyanimegal owns nothing.**

**Me: On with the show! n.n SKLEE!**

"So...when are we gonna get there, again?"

I sighed, rubbing my forehead with my free hand while I kept the other on Noishe's mane.

"Anna, for the last time, I don't know-"

"Oh come ON! I'm bored!"

I did so love that woman, but I'll be damned to hell if she isn't annoying. It wasn't like this was my idea, anyway...it's was

hers and Mae's, really. Once I'd gone back to Anna afterward, she demanded I'd tell her everything that happened, once I

had done so, of course, she pitched a fit. Something about my 'having all the fun' and her wanting to go adventuring too.

Though I pointed out our time running from Desians was adventurous enough, she insisted it wasn't the same, seeing as

this time it was a 'beat them all up' type instead of a 'run' type. At any rate, that along with another problem caused us to

be here.

See...it was only a matter of a few years before I aged to the point they realized I wasn't Kokiri, however, by that time from

what I knew I'd be in...well, wherever it was the paradoxical 'me' had told me about. Mae seemed to know more about it

than I did, so she figured we had about three years. Anna demanded we make the most of this time, and not only that, but

there was the all too eminent threat to our relationship. Anna wouldn't age. Of course, we had faced this situation back

when I couldn't, but being a physical adult helped... Then of course, Anna asked Mae about it and her reply sealed my fate (I

blame it). She had heard there was a power in some land called 'Termina' that could affect time more meticulously than what

I had gotten used to. The problem was this world supposedly didn't exist. However, we had nothing better to do and the

reward would be well worth some of our time (no pun intended), So...

"Do you even know where this 'Termina' place is?" Anna whined.

"No," I sighed, "Mae said the stories come from this area, but you did hear her when she said it might not even exist?"

"Hah, what you've been through, I believe anything exists," she rolled her eyes, shifting her position to sit more comfortably

on Noishe's back, "it's just supposed to be really trippy, right?"

"...Trippy?" I asked, looking at her.

"All this about people from Hyrule looking exactly like some people there...like an alternate reality. HEH! Irony, an alternate

reality inside an alternate reality..." she muttered, looking around again, "my life fucked up the second we met, you know

that, right? Man..."

I sighed again, deciding not to comment on the statement. We continued through the woods in relative silence, Anna looking

around on Noishe's back while I walked beside them and observed the area. The trees were getting thicker, we must be

getting deeper into the forest.

"...This place is creepy..." Anna muttered.

"..."

It was relatively 'creepy', yes, but...it can't have been that-

"AAH!" Anna cried as Noishe whinnied.

THUD.

The next thing I knew, I was looking at a bug in front of my nose and my head was throbbing like...like Lloyd in a calculus

class. I groaned and tried to get up, hearing scattered, amazingly off key notes-...

I looked up to see a skull kid with it's back to me, blowing into an instrument that sounded a lot like the ocarina. Anna was

out of it a few feet from me, and Noishe-...what was wrong with Noishe? It looked frozen... I slowly drew the Kokiri sword

when the two fairies accompanying the skull kid dingled.

"Huh-? OH!!"

The being turned to face me, and I had to ponder a moment at the strange looking mask it wore, but decided priority was to

making sure it couldn't hurt us.

"...Uh..." it looked at me, Anna, then the ocarina, "...sounds cool?"

I moved forward-

"YAH!"

"Gah-!"

I hit the dirt again as the child landed on Noishe, kicked her hard in the sides and zoomed off. Normally, Noishe wouldn't

leave us worth anything, but I suspect the little creature did something to her, seeing as she was frozen in place just

seconds ago. How, I had no idea, but I'd get an answer once we caught the rascal.

"ANNA!" I shouted. "Get up!"

"Ooooww, my head- AH!"

I grabbed her wrist and tore after Noishe and the Skull Kid, Anna managing to keep in step with me, after all, we had had

practice doing this...

"W-what happened?!" she yelped.

"I'll explain later! Less talk, more run!" I snapped.

We sped through the forest after them until we came across a small cave. We ran in- ...and over a large hole...and I didn't

have wings...

"Oh sh-!" I started.

"EEEKK!" Anna cried, clinging onto me.

BASH!

"Oooooooooowwwww..."

"Guh.."

I groaned, opening my eyes to see what had happened. Anna had landed on top of me, and something soft had broken our

fall- a flower? A really large, unorthodox looking flower, but still a flower...

"Ouch," Anna grumbled, rolling off of me as I got to my feet.

"Are you all right?" I asked, turning to her.

"You IDIOT," she glared at me, "HOW COULD YOU LEAD US INTO A HOLE!?"

She was all right.

"What is this place...?" I wondered.

Anna continued to yell at me as I looked around. Besides the flower there was a small pond before us, then-

FWOOSH!

We shielded our eyes then looked again as what reminded me of spotlights illuminated the cavern. The skull kid was

hovering in midair before us, tossing the ocarina up and down as a fairy floated on each side.

"Hey, guys, what's wrong with your horse? The moment I tried to take it from you the first time it BIT me! Horses don't

usually do that, man," it tsked, "oh well, good thing I knew a few tricks...still annoyed me, though."

"...What did you do to Noishe?" I hissed.

"That's it's name? Well, I got rid of it, freaky mind for a horse-"

"YOU WHAT?!" Anna cried.

"You..." I started.

"Hey hey! Don't get violent! You should be glad I got rid of that thing for you!" it whined. "Oh well...if you insist on starting

something..."

I got a cold chill down my spine as the being rightened and then began to wail. Anna and I flinched violently as I saw dark

energy waves radiating from the mask- That wasn't good.

"Anna! Get behind me!" I shouted.

I put myself before her, taking most of- whatever it was- though to my dismay some of it managed to get at Anna, who

shrieked. I tried to turn to see what had befallen her when I found myself screaming out as well before blacking out. I had a

horrible dream...deku scrubs were chasing me, giant ones, and then one ate me... What did this have to do with anything!? I

needed to help Anna!

"AHAHAHAH! Well, I didn't expect that for the girl, but still!"

I opened my eyes and found the room was a bit bigger...and then I looked in the water.

...If anyone ever heard the way I screamed right then, I would've killed myself.

A DEKU SCRUB!? I HAD TURNED INTO A DEKU SCRUB!? WHAT IN THE NAME OF MANA AND THE GREAT SEED-!? WAIT! Anna!

Dingle.

...You're kidding me...

"...Anna?" I asked, almost passing out at the sound of my new squeaky voice.

"Ooowwww..." a small green fairy dingled on the ground, "what happened-?"

She noticed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"

"Anna-!"

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!? KRATOS!? YOU'RE A FREAKING-! I'M A FREAKING-!? AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"

Her screaming came to a halt when we both turned to look at the Skull Kid, who was laughing at our plight.

"PRICELESS! That's just PRICELESS!"

"WHY YOU-!!" Anna zoomed forward.

BASH!

"HEY!" the yellow fairy snapped. "Don't you try anything!"

"OUTTA MY WAY, SPARKLES!" Anna shouted. "I'm gonna kill that-!"

"SIS!"

We all turned to notice that the skull kid had vanished through a hallway, a little purple fairy crying out for the yellow one

before the door slammed down.

"TAEL!!" she cried.

The fairy attempted to follow, bashing into the wooden door seeing as fairies are unable to open such things. Not that she

didn't try, to say...

"...YOU! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" she turned to yell at us.

"OUR FAULT!?" Anna shrieked. "I oughtta tear your wings out and-!!"

"HAH! Not like you CAN anymore-!"

"I'LL KILL YOU YOU-!!" Anna shrieked.

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!!" I cried, flinching at the sound of my voice. "Fighting isn't going to help anything, Anna, let's go

after the rat and-"

"Kick his woody ass from here to Sylvarant and back?" she dingled.

"Something along those lines, yes, come on, we don't want to lose them-"

"W-wait-!!" the yellow one blurted. "...I...please, take me with you!"

"..."

"What?" Anna scoffed. "After all that-?!"

"Please! My little brother is with him!" she cried. "Poor Tael...please! I can't leave him by himself with the Skull Kid! You

understand, right?! A poor, defenseless little girl is asking you this! PLEEEEEAAASSEEE!?"

I sighed as Anna jerked around.

"You're kidding, right?"

"But-!"

"Anna...let's take her with us, she could have some useful information on that goon," I said.

"Oh...fine," she huffed, "all right, kid, lead on."

"Great! I'm Tatl-"

"Wait, didn't you say your brother's name was Tael?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"...Tatl...Tael...HAH! TATTLE-TALE!" Anna laughed. "That's funny!"

"H-hey..." Tatl drooped.

I moved for the door.

"Come on, we can't lose him."

I opened the door and Anna and the hyperactive child whimpering for her sibling followed-...oh no, this was like Mithos all

over again...

"Hey, it's another one of these flowers..." Anna dingled.

"Oh! Those, hey, you," Tatl looked at me, "you can use these in that body. See, if you jump into one of these and jump

out...well, just try it."

"..."

Deciding I had nothing to lose except my life, (Which I had lost before) I jumped in...and then spat back out into the air.

What-? Hm...flowers akin to propellers...ah...so I could use these to fly around...a far cry from wings, but useful

nonetheless...if only they weren't pink... I imagine that chosen would say something about pink being a 'man's color' about

now, but I don't quite care. I landed on the other side and opened the next door with the females following me inside. Oh

lovely, a bottomless pit, there did seem to be quite a lot of these in this world. The only one I could think of back home

would...well, it would probably be Lloyd's stomach.

"Geez...this place is creepy..." Anna shivered beside me.

"We'll be fine," I said.

Though in all honesty, I had no idea how I was going to be able to fight in this body... We'd just have to avoid any

skirmishes until then. We made our way through the forested area before landing and headed past a strange looking

tree...in fact, it looked a lot like a deku scrub...

"Woooooaaaahh..." Anna mumbled, "Trriiiiippppyyy..."

The hallway we were currently walking down did have a rather...strange, visual image to one as you walked down it...and

then the door closed behind us. Of course, that meant we weren't getting back through, it always did. We found ourselves in

some kind of mill, based on the water trickling through and the waterwheel. Anna and Tatl shivered from beside me.

"This place gives me the creeps..." Anna mumbled.

"Yeah, same here..." Tatl bobbed.

"Well, it'll do us no good standing around, let's look around."

We wandered into the building up the ramp where there was a door. We headed for it when all of a sudden Tatl dingled and

Anna clung to my head.

"EEK!" they cried.

I turned-

"HELLO THERE-!!"

And I almost fell over.

"How nice it is to have visitors!" a grinning, familiar man said.

Wait...wasn't he the man at the Happy Mask Shop in town...?

"I see you have befallen a curse..." he smiled, looking at Anna and I.

"..."

"W-what the-!? How the hell do you know that?!" Anna cried.

...Here we go again...

**There! And I'm sorry it took so long...hopefully I'll get the next chapter up in a week or so. n.n' Depends how much **

**'Zelda' I play...**

**Kratos: Tch.**

**Lloyd: Well, can't be that bad...**

**Genis: Yeah, she has so many stories going I wouldn't count on it-**

**Me: What was that, PIPSQUEAK-!?**

**Cheresea: (Walks in with a straw hat and a tan) I'm back! How'd the chapter go?**

**Kratos:...Who-?**

**Cheresea: OMG GRAMPA! (Hugs)**

**Kratos: O.O...**

**Me: Right...you can go back in the story now, Kratos.**

**Kratos: I- (Is gone)**

**Cheresea: Aw! ...Oh well, guess what! I brought soveiners! n.n**

**Lloyd and Genis: ALL RIGHT!**

**Me: O.O I want one-!! Um, review thanks for reading bye!!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I am SO sorry I took so long! Really! I just couldn't bring myself to write for ****this...T.T**

**Genis: EXCUSES!**

**Lloyd: Well, at least she updated, right?**

**Cheresea: Yeah, she's only updated my fic like three times since then.**

**Lloyd and Genis:...**

**Me: Thank you ever so much for backing me here, Cheresea.**

**Cheresea: You're welcome! n.n**

**Me:...(Sigh) Someone say the disclaimer.**

**Lloyd: Freakyanimegal owns nothing.**

"What a SKANK!!"

"A-anna..." I stammered.

"HEY! You should be more respectful of the great fairy!" Tatl dingled.

I sighed. Well, this was just what we needed, another cat-fight. It was bad enough our fate was in the hands of a mad

grinning salesman and that mask the Skull-Kid had. All that trouble to get the Great Fairy back together and she could tell us

nothing about his whereabouts, she only gave me some sort of 'power'... Which turned out to be SPITBUBBLES. How, may I

ask, will that help?

"Whatever!" Anna huffed. "...Hey, Kratos."

"Hm?"

"That kid's trying to pop that balloon, why don't you shoot at it?"

"...What for?"

"Well, target practice, if it's the only thing you have to fight."

"Yeah!" Tatl dingled. "Try it out!"

I sighed and then looked at the purple balloon...

POP!

"WOAH!" the child attempting to pop it gasped. "Who did that?!"

"He did it!" Tatl dingled, tilting toward me.

"Yeah! HAH! That was cool!" Anna dingled.

"Really?" the child looked at me. "Hm...haven't seen you around before."

"He's new," Tatl said.

"Really...hey! You're a good shot, want to join the bombers?"

"The...what?"

"The Bombers! It's an ultra-secret-special-club!"

Tch, sounds delightful.

"We don't have time for-" Anna started.

"If you join you can go to our secret entrance! It leads to the observatory out of town! See, we can't let just anyone in after

what happened with this one guy... Stupid skull kid-"

"Skull kid?!" Anna dinged.

"Yeah!"

"Can you tell us about him? Do you know where he is?" Tatl asked.

"Nope, but the man at the observatory might, he bugged him a lot."

"...I see..." I said, "so where is this 'secret entrance'-?"

"Nope! You gotta become a member!"

I groaned. Great, playing with children while we should be... Oh well, it couldn't be helped.

"All right, so how do you join?"

The kid grinned at us.

Several minutes later the three of us were rooting throughout town for the capped brats. We had already found three, but

the remaining two were giving us trouble to some extent.

"Hide and seek! Hide and seek!" Anna sing-songed.

"Must you do that?" I asked.

"Yep!" she dingled.

"Hm...let's check up there!" Tatl motioned to the roof of a bar of some-sort.

"Well, got nothing else to lose," Anna said, "let's check it out!"

After several more minutes we had received the password to the 'secret place' mentioned by the children. Of course, the

way there happened to be in the sewers... Always, always in the sewers...why? The sewers in Meltokio (as Lloyd had told

me), the well...right, best to get my mind off of that. This place, at least, isn't as large as the other places I have seen or

heard of.

"Geez, this place is damp..." Tatl whined.

"Oh suck it up! We're not even walking on the wet floor!" Anna said.

"Well gee, it's better for you because you've never been able to fly, but it's REALLY damp!"

"Stop being a sissy!"

"Why you-!"

"Both of you stop," I said, "this isn't the time."

"Oh fine then! Geez..." Anna moped.

I sighed and continued onward into the darkness... Before suddenly finding myself in a rather colorful place, stairs leading

upward. Precious gems were encased on pedestals here and there, a chicken sat in a cage (where it belongs) and some

plants grew out of a patch of dirt on the ground.

"Ooooh...pretty colors..." Anna said.

"..." I slowly looked at her.

"...What?" she snapped.

"Nothing," I lied, "let's continue."

I began walking up the stairs and I heard Tatl snort.

"Weird hearing a cute little deku talk like that,"

"I know, isn't it?" Anna mused.

I grunted and kept walking until I found an elderly man looking into a telescope of some sort.

"Oh, hello there," he smiled at me, "are you one of the bomber's new friends?"

"You could say that..." Tatl said.

"Hey, have you ever seen a skull kid wearing a mask around here?" Anna asked.

"Hm? Oh yes...in fact...why don't you see for yourself?"

"Huh?" Anna dingled.

He moved aside and I slowly hopped onto the stool to look into the telescope. It was focused atop the tower we had arrived

here... The skull kid was standing on top of it, looking up at the sky. I moved the telescope further up to look at the moon...

Then something fell from it, like a meteorite from around the 'eye' region... It was blue and a second later we heard a crash

outside. I jolted and turned it back to look at the skull kid, who had disappeared.

"W-what was that?!" Anna cried.

"I don't know," I said, turning to her, "let's investigate."

"Wait, first, did you see him?"

"The skull-kid is atop the clock town tower, it only opens on the eve of the festival..." the old man said.

"That's in two days," Tatl said, "the end of our time..."

I nodded and headed outside to look for the object that had fallen...

"Ooooooh! It's BEAUTIFUL!" Anna exclaimed.

It was a glowing blue stone shaped like a tear.

"Those are REALLY valuable!" Tatl said. "You should take it!"

"Can we? Please?" Anna asked me. "Plleeeeeeaaaasseee...?"

I groaned and picked up the object.

"Thanks, Kratos! I'd kiss you, but uh..."

"Yes, due to the circumstances..." I sighed.

"We should get back to town, we need to get into that tower," Tatl said.

So we headed back to the Clock Town, more specifically, to the tower...

"There doesn't look like there's a way in yet..." Tatl drooped, "either way, you can't get up there..."

"...Hey! Isn't that one of those flower things?" Anna dingled.

Come to think of it, yes...

"We could just use that!" Anna said.

I took a few steps forward...

"HOLD IT!"

I stopped as another Deku flew in over the wall carrying some bags, it dove into the flower before shooting back up and

placing a hat of some sort over the propeller leaves atop its head.

"This is my private property, young man! Don't try using it when I'm not around!"

"Hey! How were we supposed to know that?" Anna huffed.

"Besides, we need to get up there!" Tatl said.

"Sorry, don't give anything without getting something in return," it said.

"..." I sighed.

"...Hey, wait! Is that a-?"

"Hm?" I blinked, looking at the blue stone I had been carrying.

"T-that! You must give that to me!" the deku stammered.

"Huh? Why should we?" Anna demanded.

"L-look, my wife's birthday is coming up and she's been wanting one of those since our wedding!" he cried. "A moon's tear-!

L-look, I'm desperate! If you give it to me I'll- I'll give you this spot! Flower included!"

Well well...

"All right, here," I handed it over.

"Kratos-!" Anna started.

"Thank you so much! Here's the deed! I'm off!"

"Thanks mister!" Tatl said.

He popped into the flower and then took off again, whistling to himself.

"Oh..." Anna drooped.

"Hm? What's the matter?" I asked her.

"Oh nothing...I just really liked that gem..." she said.

...Oh...

"...I...I apologize, I should've-"

"No it's okay, we need this anyway," she dingled, "but um..."

"Yes?"

"...We have the flower and all, but what are we going to do for the next two days?"

"..."

"...Um...hm...sightsee?" Tatl suggested.

"...Nothing else to do," Anna sighed.

"Um...Kratos..." Tatl said.

"What?" I asked.

"Dog," Anna said.

"...Dog...?"

I turned to see a growling mutt looking me in the eye.

"...Oh..." I said.

...Then I took off running as fast as I could with the stubby legs.

"BARK BARK BARK!!"

Why, I ask, is it always me?

After losing the mutt, however, we did indeed take the incentive to look around town. Apparently, a performance of some

sort was to happen on the festival judging by the practicing acts... Two men were juggling in front of the inn...they looked

rather familiar, in fact... I could've sworn I had seen them in Hyrule Castle Town and later in Kakariko...

"Oh cool!" Anna chirped, apparently she was enjoying it.

"Hey, look over there!" Tatl dingled.

We turned and laid eyes on a rather fat zora who was waddling along.

"...What about him?" Anna asked

"He's the manager of the Indigo-go's!" Tatl dingled. "They're the coolest band in all of Termina!"

Then it hit us.

"Termina-!?" Anna cried. "THIS is Termina?!"

"Huh? Well...yeah, what did you think it was?" she dingled.

Anna swerved to look at me.

"This is the place? We found it so easily?" she asked.

"...Depending on your definition of 'easy' I assume..." I trailed.

"This is great! Once we get back to normal we can get right on to looking for that 'power'!" she dingled.

"Huh? What are you two talking about?" Tatl drooped.

"It would explain a lot," I said to Anna while ignoring Tatl, "I've seen several people here who resemble Hylians. It's just

how Mae described it to us earlier."

"Helloooooooo, are you listening to me?" Tatl dingled angrily.

"Huh? No, not really, you say something?" Anna asked.

Tatl performed the fairy equivalent of a tantrum.

"Fine then! DON'T tell me anything!" she huffed.

"If you insist," I shrugged, walking off with Anna behind me.

"H-hey-! YOU JERKS!"

It was then another problem posed itself. That was, where would be appropriate to rest the night. The sun was already

getting low and we had to wait until the Eve of the Carnival in order to get into the tower...

"...Kratos!" Anna cried.

I heard more growling...

I swore loudly and ran off again, yet another slobbering canine on my heels. This time, however, I was not fortunate enough

to evade it and it knocked me down. ...I can only imagine what Lloyd would say...

"Hey! Let him go you big hairy stupid mutt!" Anna shouted, attempting to ram it in the face.

"Yeah! Let wood-boy go!" Tatl cried.

"Shoo!" a new voice cried. "Shoo you mean old doggie!"

The dog released me and ran off, I groaned and attempted to get back on my feet when a woman knelt down beside me.

...This must be Termina, she looks remarkably like the woman with the chickens in Kakiriko..

"Are you okay little Deku boy?" she asked.

"I'm fine," I said instantly.

When I attempted to get up, of course, I was forced to acknowledge otherwise. The beast had done a number on me.

"Oh you poor thing! Come along, I'll patch you up-"

"That's not necessary- Hey-!"

"Oh, it's so cute how you try to act tough," she smiled.

"Put me down-"

She giggled, having scooped me up in her arms and begun walking off.

"Don't be shy! I'll take you home and get you all bandaged up!" she smiled.

"I-"

"Awwwwwwww!" Tatl laughed. "Isn't that cuuuuuuuuuutte?"

"Heheheheheh!" Anna giggled.

The humiliation...

"Besides, little one, you look lost. Don't worry, I run the inn, maybe your mommy is there, okay?"

"I-"

"Aw!" Anna crowed. "Don't worry, Kratos! We'll find your mommy! Aw!"

"Ahahahaha! Yeah!" Tatl jeered.

"...You're enjoying this, aren't you?" I glared.

"Yeah, actually,"

"Yep!"

Once at the inn the woman, Anju, her name was, set me down and tended to my injuries...

"Thank you," I said.

"Don't worry about it..." she smiled sadly.

"..."

"Huh? Hey, is something wrong?" Anna asked.

"Oh...do you...mind if I talk to you about it?" she asked.

"Go ahead, we don't mind," Tatl said.

"Well you see...my fiance is missing,"

"What-!?"

"That's awful!"

"..."

Well, the girls seemed concerned about this, and I suppose I sympathized as well, but we had more pressing matters, did

we not? We didn't come to play matchmaker or the like...

"You see...we were going to be married on the Eve of the Carnival," she said, "but he just...I haven't seen him since. And

lately, with the rumors that the moon will fall and everything...my mother wants me to take shelter at Romani Ranch, but I

just...can't leave without him..."

"...He'd want you to be safe," I said.

"Huh?"

"...Regardless of what happened to him, he'll want you to be safe," I said, "if he truly loves you he will understand. ...More

so than that, if he is able I'm sure he'll return to you..."

Speaking as a lover myself, though I did not look the part any longer...

"Yeah! He'll come back!" Anna dingled. "They always do, heheheheh..."

"..." I coughed.

"You really think so?" she smiled. "Thank you...both of you."

There was a tolling of the clock...

"Oh! Would you look at the time! And we still haven't found your mother..." she sighed.

"I-" I started.

"All right then, I insist," she smiled, "you three can stay here the night and tomorrow we'll get right on that!"

I went to say something but Tatl cut me off.

"Thanks, Anju!" she said.

"Don't worry about it," she smiled, "take the first room on the right upstairs, I'll leave it open."

"...We appreciate your hospitality," I said.

"Aw!" she hugged me. "You're so cute using big words like that!"

Anna was in hysterics.

* * *

"Well...it's finally time," Anna said.

I sat down in front of the Tower entrance, Anna resting on my shoulder. I looked at her and noticed she in fact still looked

like 'her' except much smaller with the green aura around here... Hopefully we'd be able to get back to normal- or rather,

what was 'normal' for us now, soon... It was already dark, and the moon had gotten dangerously close. For the past two

days we had spent time looking around the area with Anju. I had attempted to explain that my 'mother' was not in the town

but she persisted... Once she had realized the fact, however, she finally gave us our space again and promised she'd let us

know if she saw anything. I sighed, she was kind, but...it really was a waste of her time. Then of course...Anna attempted to

make me search for her fiance, Kafei... I had to restrain myself from snorting at the name. After all...that was Yuan's last

name, it was rather ironic...

"Hey! It's opening!"

I looked up as the clock began to toll midnight, the entryway falling away to reveal stairs.

"Great! Let's go up there and kick wood-boy's butt!" Anna dingled.

"I'm coming, Tael!" Tatl said, zooming in.

"..." I sighed and followed after them, we did have to hurry...

On top of the tower we did find Tael, but also the masked skull-kid who was floating by him tossing up the ocarina...

"Tael!" Tatl cried.

"Swamp, mountain, ocean, valley," Tael said, hurried, "quickly, the four who are there, bring them here-"

SMACK!

"Hold your tounge, you stupid fairy!" the skull-kid snapped.

"Tael-!!" Tatl dingled.

"Well, whatever, nothing can stop it now...just look above you!" he cackled.

The moon wasn't more than fifty feet above us...

"If it's something you think you can stop, just TRY IT!"

He began to wail again, the moon descending faster...

"Kratos-! We've got to stop him!!" Anna cried.

All right then...

"Oof-!"

I hit him with...well, with a bubble, and he dropped the ocarina... I ran forward and scooped it up then remembered

something important... Mae said...something about the song of time and if I needed help...

"That thing isn't going to stop him!" Tatl cried. "We need more time!!"

That's it!

"W-what the heck is-?!" Anna cried.

I went to play the ocarina but they turned into pipes...oh well, I could wonder about that later. I quickly played the song...

Then the next thing I knew I was falling...

"...K...os..."

I twitched a bit.

"Kratos! Wake up!"

I jolted upright to find myself in front of the Clock Tower...and something was really, really strange... Anna and Tatl yelped

and looked around the area.

"The moon!" Anna shouted. "It's all the way back up there!"

"H-hey!" Tatl looked around. "That tower-! Wasn't it taller?!"

It didn't take much besides that to figure it out...everything had started over.

"Th-that...what exactly ARE you?!" Tatl yelled at me. "That song and that instrument-!...WAIT!"

"The instrument!" Anna dingled. "Smiley said if we got that back we could go back to normal!"

That's right, the mask salesman said that...

"Right! Let's go back!" Tatl said.

I looked around another minute before we walked into the tower...

"Oh ho ho!" the salesman grinned, appearing from nowhere.

"Eek-! D-don't DO that!" Anna cried.

"I see you have retrieved the precious item..." he smiled, "good good good...now...listen closely..."

Suddenly, an organ appeared from nowhere and he sat before it.

"W-where did-?" Anna dingled.

"It's best not to ask questions," I sighed.

The salesman began to play a song, and having had enough experience with songs I played along... I began to feel woozy

all of a sudden and Anna slowly drifted down and landed on my shoulder... I had that 'dream' about the deku scrubs again,

this time they were leaving... There was a flash of light and suddenly I felt something fall from my face... Then I hit the

ground myself when the minor weight on my shoulder which was Anna suddenly became much larger and heavier.

"Oof-!"

"EEK-!"

BAM!

"Ooooowwww...!" I heard a voice from atop my back.

"Gah..."

"Hey...wait! I'm me again! HAH HAH!"

Before I knew it I was pulled to my feet and Anna, now a Kokiri, was hugging me tightly with a grin on her face.

"We're back to normal! Back to normal! Sklee!" she laughed.

"An-na..." I coughed, "...Air..."

"Oh, sorry!" she laughed...then hugged me again. "I'm not an annoying fairy anymore! YAY! I thought I was doomed to be

like Mithos for the rest of my life!"

...I resisted the urge to laugh.

"Why aren't you the happy couple," Tatl teased.

"Yep!" Anna kissed my cheek.

"..." I flushed.

"Now then..."

We turned to the mask salesman.

"I fulfilled my promise, now you must fulfill yours..." he held out his hand.

"..."

"Uh...about that..." Tatl trailed, "we...kinda..."

"Don't have it..." Anna finished.

Slowly his eyes opened fully...then his right lid twitched.

Uh-oh...

**HAH! I finally did it! Finally! n.n' And I actually managed to get it so it didn't sound rushed! In my opinion, anyway...it **

**sounded a lot more rushed in the rough draft...n.n I'm glad I added in that bit with Anju...that's like my favorite side-**

**quest in there. n.n **

**Cheresea: Hee hee. n.n Grampa got treated like a kid.**

**Lloyd: I liked it when he got attacked by the dog! n.n**

**Genis: Yuan's last name is Kafei? **

**Me: Yep! n.n Thank God for TOS2! Lol. ...I need that game..(grumbles)**

**Genis: Review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**...If I hear another person mocking my lateness...**

**Cheresea: You'll what? You know it's your fault.**

**Me: If you weren't the protagonist for my most popular work I'd gut you.**

**Lloyd: Eh, her story's not THAT great.**

**Cheresea: Gee, thanks a lot...(grumbles)**

**Genis: Way to go, Lloyd.**

**Lloyd: Huh-? Wait! I didn't mean it like that-!!**

**Genis: Whatever, Freakyanimegal owns nothing.**

**Me: This, I'm sorry to say, is the Anju/Kafei sidequest. Mainly because one, I like it, two, you get a crapload of masks **

**from it. And if you've played this game you know more masks equal yayness. n.n I'll wrap it into one chapter though, **

**then next chapter onto the swamp. **

**Lloyd: What's so important about masks...?**

**Me: If you get all of them, something badass happens... X3**

**Cheresea: Hm...okay. n.n Enjoy.**

"YOU WHAT?!"

The next thing I knew the strange man had grabbed me by the shoulders and was shaking me violently. Anna and Tatl let

out their various exclamations as the man ranted at me.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE?! DO YOU!?"

"I-" I started.

Then he dropped me, I barely managed to land on my feet before he let out a howl that sounded most like a pained dog.

The manic salesman was clutching his head, looking as if he was going to tear out his hair.

"Do you know what will happen if that mask is not returned!?" he cried. "The unspeakable evils that dwell in that mask

have enough malice to-"

"Plunge the world into darkness and despair, wipe out life as we know it..." I trailed.

I was getting rather sick of this type of thing.

"YOU can laugh about it!" he pointed at me. "But...but...surely you have seen it! The moon!"

"And?" I asked.

"The moon drawing closer is a result of that mask's power!" he said. "You see...legends say it was used by an ancient,

cursed tribe in their hexing rituals. Eventually they grew to fear its horrible power and sealed it away, so none could find-"

"Then why the hell did you take it?" Anna scoffed.

She had a point.

"T-that doesn't matter!" he said. "The point is, that skull kid took the mask from me! If left alone, this entire land of Termina

shall perish in everlasting flame!"

Somehow, this was beginning to bore me...

"Again?" Anna sighed. "How many lands are there in jeopardy, exactly?"

"PLEASE!" the crazed man flung himself forward. "YOU MUST RETRIEVE THAT MASK! I BEG OF YOU!"

"..." I sighed, "...we have business here at any rate..."

"So you'll do it?!"

"I- Guh-!"

He scooped me up again, this time in a bone-crushing hug.

"OH YOU BRAVE, GALLANT BOY! THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

My eye twitched, I was growing increasingly tired of being touched.

"Here," he said, setting me back down, "take the masks with you..."

He picked up a mask that looked like the deku scrub and a bright green one with wings sticking out the side which had

been on the floor. He held them out to us with that grin on his face.

"You can still use these, do not fear, for the magic has been sealed inside them," he smiled, "being able to change form at

you own will should assist you."

"Huh?" Anna took the fairy mask. "So you mean if I put this on-"

There was a flash.

"HOLY CRAP!" she dingled, once again a fairy. "Okay...so then if I wanted to get back-"

There was another flash and she was holding the mask in her hands, normal.

"...That...is so...freaking...trippy!" she grinned, hugging the mask.

"..." I silently took the deku mask.

"Oh! Oh! Kratos, can I try that one!?" she asked.

"These aren't toys-" I started.

"Sure they are!" she swiped the deku mask.

FLASH!

"..."

A feminine looking deku with flower petals for a dress and hair of grass stood there.

"COOOL!" she cried, her voice high-pitched. "This is fun!"

"Anna..." I sighed.

"Wow, she's really hyper, huh?" Tatl asked.

"..."

"I'm pleased you find this enjoyable, however..." the salesman coughed, pointing to his watch.

"Huh? Oh! Right!"

FLASH!

She handed me the mask, "Right, we'll get back the creepy emo-heart thing."

"...Majora's mask?"

"That's what I said, the creepy emo-heart thing,"

"..."

"You do that a lot, huh?" Tatl asked me.

"..."

"I'll take that as a yes,"

"All right, we should get moving," I said, heading for the door.

"Good luck, young ones!" the man said.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, though Anna began giggling.

"Right! Let's go!" Tatl said.

Once we were outside, Tatl decided she had apparently become leader.

"Okay! Let's go for the swamp like Tael said! Maybe we'll find what he was talking about!"

"Well...we could, but..." Anna trailed.

"Hm? Anna, we only have three days-" I stated.

"No we don't," she smiled at me, one of her 'I have an idea' smiles.

"..."

"See, if we can go back to this time anytime we want..." she grinned, "don't we have unlimited time?"

Actually...she had a point.

"That's no excuse to fool around," I said, "we have a task to accomplish-"

"Oh fudge that! Any excuse is an excuse to fool around!" she grinned. "We weren't able to do half the stuff in town while

we were a plant and a flying fluffball!"

"Well excuse me..." Tatl muttered.

"Still-" I started.

"Oh come on, Kratos!" she said. "We haven't had time to ourselves in soooo long!"

Then, she did something that has been the bane of many a man ever since Mae invented it. The puppy dog eyes.

"Pllleeeeeeaaaassseeeee...?" she asked.

"..."

Okay, Kratos, just say 'no'. We have things to do, playing around is not-

"Don't you love me?" she whimpered.

Damn it all to hell!

"...Fine," I sighed, "but not long-"

"Great! Let's go to that 'bomb basketball' place!"

Then she grabbed my arm and dragged me off.

"H-hey! What about my brother?!" Tael cried, flying after us.

So Anna dragged me to the 'bomb basketball' thing she had mentioned. The place looked rather interesting if it weren't for

the couple on a stand in between that were...rather distracting, seeing as they had been making out lavishly and calling

each other by pet-names such as 'darling' and 'dear' and 'snoogums'... They rather reminded me of the couple that was

always dancing back in Kakiriko...in short, they disgusted me.

"Uh..." Anna blinked.

"..."

"Oh, Dearest, look,"

"What is it darling?" the woman purred.

"We have customers," he said.

"Customers?" she slowly turned to look at us. "Oh isn't that sweet, dear-heart? A young couple, by the looks of it, oh, isn't

that so absolutely precious, my honey-bunny?!"

"Yes it is, honey-biscuit!" he kissed her again. "It is so sweet!"

"Oh Darling!"

"..." my eye twitched.

"...Ew," Anna said simply.

"Now can we leave?" I asked.

"Wait! Look, you two can play the special game! Just for you two young lovebirds!"

"Oh! A special game?!" Anna smiled.

Damn it all. No, no no no...

"Yes, little one, you and your future hubby can play a teamwork game!"

'Future' husband...?

"Since your our first couple to play, it's free!" the woman smiled.

Oh no-

"Oh YEAH!" Anna grinned. "Let's do it!"

"If we must..." I sighed, rubbing my forehead.

"The rules are simple!" the man said. "There will be several disarmed bombchu zooming around, yes? Only one of you is

allowed to pick them up, then you must hand it to your partner and they must activate it by tapping the nose, then hit one

of the targets on the walls!"

"Yes," the woman smiled. "If you get all of them, we'll give you a prize!"

"Sweet! So what's a bombchu?"

"..."

"What?" Anna asked me.

"Just pick the moving things up and give them to me," I said.

"Okay! We're so gonna win!" she grinned.

"All right then...go!"

"You have until the song stops!"

Suddenly, several bombchus appeared from nowhere and a rather annoying song began playing. Anna stared a bit at the

bombchus before running and grabbing one of the floor, I ran to her and she handed it to me.

"That's one!" she chirped, then ran after another.

Well...no getting out of this now...

"There,"

I placed the bombchu and sent it crawling up the wall, there was a small explosion as it hit the target. Anna found this

strangely amusing, but then, she always had thing for explosions...

"Got another one!" she chirped, running to me.

So the game continued for another minute or two. It became rather...amusing, actually, seeing as I found myself running

along with Anna for her to pick one up and hand it to me, then we'd repeat the process. My heart began beating

faster...strange, I was getting excited over this? Then again, I had been far much worse in Hryule...especially that one time

in the Zora's Domain- Another one! Okay, where's the last-?

There!

BAM!

"Yes!" I cheered, pumping my fist.

"YAY! We won!" Anna grinned, hugging me tightly.

"Hah hah!" I grinned.

Then we both stopped.

"..." I twitched.

"...Kratos? Did you just-?" she looked at me.

"Congratulations!" the owners said. "You've won!"

"Ah, the power of young love!" the woman smiled.

"It's touching, is it not, darling?" the man cooed.

"Why yes it is! Look how they hug!"

I twitched more and Anna smirked before hugging me even tighter.

"Aw, isn't that sweet?" Tatl teased.

"..." I glared.

"Here's your prize!"

Anna released me just long enough to walk forward and grab the piece of paper the woman was holding out. She looked

at it before grinning that idiot grin she gave Lloyd, bouncing on her heels.

"Oh AWESOME!" she cried.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Look! It's a coupon for a free meal at some diner!" she chirped.

"..." I blinked.

"We have our lunch!" she grinned, waving the coupon. "I hope there's a buffet!"

"...Anna-" I started.

"That's great and all, can we go to the swamp now?" Tatl asked.

"As much as I hate to agree with her, we really should be-"

"What?" Anna whined. "But Kratos-!"

"We've wasted enough time dawdling-"

I shouldn't have said that.

"Oh! So spending time with me is wasteful?!" she snapped, her hands on her hips. "Is that it!?"

"W-what? No, of course not, I merely-" I started.

She puppy-eyed me again.

"...Fine, we'll have lunch," I sighed.

"SKLEE!"

With that she dragged me off to find said restaurant.

"..." I sighed.

"After that, let's go check out the Mayor's place!"

"Pardon?" I asked. "Why-?"

"Anju said Kafei was the Mayor's son, so..."

...Ah...Anna wanted to look more into that. I see...she wasn't the type to give up so easily on anything, especially on

anything dealing with people...and their love lives... She had a habit of being nosy, though I couldn't bring myself to scoff at

her desire to help...

"I see," I stated.

"In fact, it's early, let's go there now!" she chirped.

"Oh, fine, since we're wasting time..." Tatl huffed, "after that let's fix the Great Fairy again."

That halted us.

"What? Why?" I asked.

"She said she'd help you more if you returned to your original form, right?" she said.

True...she did say something of that nature...

"Well she even remember that? Everything's started over, remember?" Anna asked.

"She'll know," Tatl dingled, "trust me."

"..." I sighed, "fine, we'll spend the day here and tomorrow we'll head to the Swamp."

"Okie dokie! To the mayor's!" Anna cried.

So we went to the mayor's abode to find the secretary rather...well, she was snoring. Anna and I looked at each other

before she shrugged and walked toward the door on the right...

"A-anna, is it all right if we-?" I asked.

"Sure!" Anna grabbed my wrist and dragged me off.

I knew better than to protest. At any rate, inside was an obscenely fat- ...meaty, woman who was talking to a just as

plump Zora... I hesitated when Anna walked up to the woman.

"Excuse me, Ma'am, are you the mayor's wife?" she asked.

"Why yes, yes indeed young lady," she smiled, "I am Madame Aroma, are you and your friend here on a field trip of some

sort? Where's your teacher?"

...I strongly resisted saying it, however...

"This isn't a field trip," I said.

Then I smacked myself in the face.

"Oh? Then what can I help you two with?"

"Um...Ma'am, I'm sorry, but we've heard your son-" Anna started.

"OH! MY KAFEI!" she wailed suddenly, throwing me off guard. "My poor, poor baby boy!!"

She burst into sobs, Anna and I exchanging glances before she backed up a step-

"Please, can I ask you a favor?!"

I began to protest-

"Can you find my daring Kafei?! I'll reward you handsomely!"

Now, Anna's greatest love was helping people. ...Though that didn't mean she didn't love cash...

"Really!? Sure!" Anna chirped. "We promised a friend we would anyway!"

"Anna-" I started.

"Oh thank you so much! Here!"

She handed Anna a mask, a mask with purple hair...

"Please, speak to people using this mask and they'll know you are looking for him."

"Another mask?" Anna blinked.

Hm...there appear to be great importance in masks in this world...

"Now please, start looking for clues!" Aroma asked. "His room is next door, you have permission to search it! Just please!

Do anything to bring my darling boy back to me! Wah!!"

Anna and I nodded and quickly excused ourselves to the room she had mentioned.

"Woah, scary," Anna said.

"I believe it's just maternal instinct," I said.

"...Hey, what do you mean by that?" she glared at me.

"...Well, I recall one time when Lloyd was young-"

"AND YOU TOOK HIM OUTSIDE WITHOUT TELLING ME-!!"

"It was just the front yard-" I started.

"YOU STILL TOOK HIM!!" she roared.

"...Let's inspect Kafei's room-"

"DON'T CHANGE THE SUBJECT!!" she roared.

I groaned, walking into the area separated by a curtain...

"KRATOS!"

A few steps in I spotted something of interest right away. A journal of some kind, lying wide open on the desk... Now, it

was against honorable means to look at such a thing, however...

"Oh sweet! A diary!" Anna chirped, swiping it up.

"Anna-" I started for the fifth time that hour.

"Hey, it's Kafei's! Check it out, he said he was going to some bar with a 'Wedding Mask'..."

That snatched my curiosity.

"Hm..." I read it, "apparently it's customary to make a mask to wear on your wedding..."

"Oh that is so SWEET!" Anna cried. "Why didn't we do something like that?!"

"We were running for our lives, Anna," I sighed.

"Oh...right," she laughed, "hm...the Milk Bar...we should check it out!"

"I thought we were going to help the Great Fairy-" Tatl whined.

"NEVER FEAR, ANJU! TRIPLE A IS ON THE CASE!" Anna cried.

"..."

"What?" Tatl dingled.

"Triple A! Agent Anna Aurion!" she chirped.

"..."

"Anyway, to the Milk Bar!" she shouted, then started off.

...Does she even know where that is...?

"Um..." she came back, "...do you know where the Milk Bar is?"

I rest my case.

"We'll ask directions," I sighed, walking out.

"HAH! Who needs directions?!"

"You do," I stated.

"Do not! I have an innate sense of direction-!" she went to open the door...

"..." I sighed.

She opened the closet.

"...Innate, huh?" Tatl muttered.

"I meant to do that!" Anna said, going to the other door. "NOW we're-!"

"..." I smacked myself.

"The bathroom, huh?" Tatl said.

Anna twitched a bit, shaking.

"SHUT UP, PUFFBALL! LET'S GO!"

This time she opened the correct door and we followed after her, though admittedly she was a bit flustered... Deciding we

had no choice in the matter, Tatl and I sighed while follow her through town until we managed to find the Milk Bar place the

journal had mentioned. Once inside we found a rather fat man that resembled Talon a great deal, though we ignored the

fact and Anna went to put on the Kafei mask to inquire about him. She was a little afraid it would turn her into a male, but I

assumed it shouldn't be like the ones we had...

However, she won, so I put it on.

"...See? Nothing," I stated.

"Oh shush and ask!" she snapped.

I sighed and walked up to the man.

"Excuse me, have you seen-?"

"Kafei? Nope, can't say I have," he said, "saw him a couple days ago, the last anyone did."

"...I see, did he say anything strange?"

"Hm...can't say so, he just kept talking about Anju..." he chuckled.

"Hm, very mysterious!" Anna said.

"...Not really, they're engaged-" I started.

"VERY mysterious!" she said, ignoring me. "Let's just ask Anju again..."

"But-"

"TO THE INN!"

With that she marched up the stairs to the exit.

"...She's really...thick, huh?" Tatl asked.

"...You don't know the half of it," I sighed.

"I HEARD THAT KRATOS!"

I sighed and followed her, though I distinctly heard the man laugh about me being 'whipped'...

...I'd much like to be my usual form and glare at him at this moment.

"Okay! Let's ask Anju!" Anna chirped.

"I thought she said that already," Tatl said.

"Shut it, puffball!" she snapped.

I sighed and walked inside, taking out the mask again to speak to Anju. I didn't expect much, however I did in fact incite a

reaction out of her that was not like the one from the previous encounter. She yelped and stammered...

"I- I have a clue! Something that will help you find him!" she shouted.

"Really?!" Anna asked.

"Yes, please...meet me in the kitchen at eleven thirty, please?" she asked.

"At night?" Tatl asked.

"Y-yes, I know it's a strange request but..." she bit her lip.

"...Don't worry! Agent Anna Aurion is always there to help those in need!"

Of course, which was why I was always the one bailing her out of dangerous situations.

"Thank you both so much," she said, "here, you two can stay in the inn, just be there!"

She handed me a key and I pocketed it.

"Thank you," I said.

"Please...don't forget," Anju said.

"Got it!" Anna chirped.

With that I took off the mask and we headed outside...

"Well, now we've just gotta waste time until midnight!" Anna chirped.

"Eleven-thirty," I corrected.

"Whatever," she said, "anyway, now let's get lunch-!"

"You SAID we'd help the Great Fairy!" Tatl snapped.

"What? I said nothing of the sort," Anna scoffed.

"WHAT!? WHY YOU LITTLE-!!"

They began arguing and I took a seat on a bench, sighing. This would take a while...

"Why should we help your slutty fairy boss!?" Anna cried.

"Because you promised! And she said she'd be able to help more!!"

"How the hell can SHE help!?"

"The Great Fairy is very powerful-!"

"For a slut."

"SHE IS NOT A-!!"

"Both of you, quiet!" I snapped. "We have nothing else to do until late tonight, and the way things are going I doubt we'll

get to the swamp anytime soon. We'll reform the Great Fairy and then-"

Anna's stomach growled.

"Have lunch?" she chirped.

"..." I sighed, "yes, have lunch."

"Oh...fine," Anna huffed, "we'll fix slutty mc-slut-slut."

Tatl did the closest thing to a growl I've heard a fairy perform. So it was off again...let me see, the fairy fragment was over

the water by the 'laundry' section last time... So we headed off to said area and found the 'fairy' being hovering around

aimlessly. Anna...reacted.

"Oh! Oh! We gotta hop over the water to get it, right?!" Anna cried.

"Well...that's what I did last time-" I started.

"Gimme the deku mask! I want to do it this time-!!"

"But I-"

She snatched it from me and turned into a deku.

"Coolo!" she chirped.

Then she hopped across the water and grabbed the fairy fragment.

"Hear my plea!" it said. "Take me to the fountain in North Clock Town-!"

"Yeah yeah, I know, don't sweat it," Anna chirped before landing back on the ground.

"Well, we've got it, let us go," I said.

"Okay!"

There was a flash and Anna returned to normal, handing me the mask.

"To the Slut-Sauna!" she struck a pose.

"..."

"Both of you stop it already!!" Tatl cried.

Naturally, we ignored her and headed off. Nothing eventful happened after that except apparently (according to the 'Great'

Fairy) her sisters had been shattered by, of course, the skull kid. She asked us to help them if we could, and gave us a

mask that Anna almost hurled at, seeing as it looked just like the sl- ...damn, now she's got me doing it. At any rate,

apparently it attracted fairies...

"...We should burn it," Anna said.

I actually had half a mind to agree.

"Why do you guys hate her so much...?" Tatl wondered.

"...NOW can we get lunch?" Anna asked.

"Yes," I nodded, "let's go."

As we headed off to find the place Anna wanted to go, I mulled over our situation. All right, once Anna was content with

wasting our time on side-quests we'd most likely be out of time and we'd have to start over. That would be all right,

though, then we'd have a full three days to explore the swamplands, then after that, the mountains... I pondered a minute,

didn't Anna realize that if we found Kafei and started things over again, it would undo everything we were doing

now? ...Though it would probably be best not to mention that, as it would depress her...or make her want us to do it again.

Then there was this whole situation with the masks, strange, that such things could hold such meaning in this place. I was

determined to never touch the fairy mask again, however, seeing as it reminded me to clearly of Pronyma by looks, and

Mithos because of the word 'fairy'.

"We're here!" Anna chirped. "C'mon, let's go inside!"

* * *

"...I'm bored,"

"We KNOW already! STOP SAYING THAT!"

I sighed as Anna and Tatl began to bicker again, leaning against the wall of the inn's kitchen. It was late, I realized, but

their bickering had only gone into a crescendo since nightfall. Silently I begged that Anju would hurry and arrive as to end

this, they were driving me to the brink of insanity. I groaned as Anna smacked Tatl and Tatl began attempting to head-butt

her. Why had I married that woman again? Besides the fact for some reason I loved her? There were too many reasons

why I shouldn't have, but then I always was nefarious for making the wrong decisions...

"Oh good, you're here,"

Thank the gods, mana, the great tree and Din, Farore and Naryu!

"Hi, Anju!" Anna chirped. "See? You could count on us to be here! TRIPLE A NEVER QUITS A CASE!""

"Er...yes, I can see that, thank you so much," she smiled awkwardly, "I'm sure this is difficult for you. Your parents must be

worried about you if they discovered you out so late..."

Anna and I exchanged glances.

"It's fine," I said, "now...what do you know about Kafei?"

"My assistant asked, stating the obvious question..." Anna muttered.

...Is she NARRATING this...? ...And why am I the 'assistant'?

Anju sighed, though not for the same reason I did.

"Well, earlier today I received a letter..."

**...Okay, so I didn't put the whole thing in one chapter. I'm sorry, it was getting too much for one update and I was so **

**behind with this story as it is. Please forgive me.**

**Cheresea: Well, at least you got it up, right?**

**Lloyd: Doesn't this qualify as filler...?**

**Me: Oh BITCH you did not just say that! Majora's mask is MADE of side-quests! And trust me, this is the only one I will **

**put half as much time and effort on! **

**Genis: Yeah yeah, calm down...**

**Me: Mmph...though I must say, I enjoyed the 'Triple A' thing...X3**

**Cheresea: Who's the super-stylish detective chick, macthmakin' and saving love-lives?**

**Lloyd and Genis: TRIPLE A!**

**Me:...I'm going to pretend that didn't happen... Review? Oh yes, one more thing. I'm going to try an experiment to fix **

**the format. I'll repost this chapter in a couple days, then can you guys pm me and tell me if it loks better? If not I'll put **

**this one back on. Thanks.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, sorry about never reposting last chapter. I decided just to do the format thing with this one and see how it flies. Sorry about that...**

**Cheresea: I hope no one was actually waiting...**

**Genis: Oh please, they have lives, not like Lloyd.**

**Lloyd: I do too have a life!**

**Cheresea: Then why are you watching the clock tick?**

**Lloyd: Because I want to get out of here.**

**Genis: True.**

**Me: HEY!**

**Cheresea: Read and enjoy, please! n.n**

"...I'm bored,"

I sighed.

"Shush! We're supposed to be hiding!" Tatl dingled.

I don't know what I was expecting when Anju called us there, but I did not like the results. She said she had received a letter from this 'Kafei'

who was apparently hiding somewhere in the 'laundry' area of town. She asked us to mail the letter and after he read it Anju said we could get

a chance to talk to him. Though that meant sneaking into the hiding hole he had made for himself, because apparently he wouldn't talk to us in

public. Now we were waiting in the bushes for the mailman to arrive. ...And it was beginning to rain. Lovely.

"My wings are getting wet!" Tatl whined.

"Shut up or I'll tear them off," Anna growled.

"Shut the heck up!"

"Both of you be quiet," I said quietly, "we're supposed to be HIDING."

"We are,"

"It defeats the purpose if they can hear you," I said flatly.

"Oh f- oh! Here comes the mailman!"

We all went silent as the mailman rang the bell at the bridge... The door across from us opened and a child wearing a mask of some sort ran

out to greet him. Needless to say, this was our chance. Anna and I raced in while they were distracted and found ourselves in a stairwell that

led to a small room. It was rather frugal, simply a bed, a desk, and a few crates of something or another. Anna walked over to the desk and

(because she seems to like doing this) read the open journal.

"Anna-"

"They should stop leaving them open, then!" she huffed.

I sighed.

"...Hey! It's the same writing as that 'Kafei' guy!" she said.

I checked it over. Indeed, she was right...Kafei must have been here.

...Footsteps.

"Someone's coming!" Tatl said.

"Uh-oh- Should we hide?" Anna asked.

"Where?" I said blandly.

"Oh...nyeh," she huffed.

"If this boy knows Kafei, I don't see how this could be a problem,"

The boy rounded the corner.

"You...you must be Kratos and Anna, yeah?" he said.

"Yup!" Anna chirped.

"Anju told me about you..." he said, "...can you keep a secret?"

"Trust me, we can," she nodded, rolling her eyes.

"..."

He removed the mask.

"I am Kafei,"

"What? That's ridiculous! The Kafei we're looking for is an adult! You're just a child!" Tatl scoffed.

"I was turned in to this by an imp wearing a mask," he said.

This 'imp' turns up a lot, doesn't he? Insolent little whelp...

"Oooh...rough, buddy," Anna said, "we ran into him too. He turned me into one of those."

She emphasized 'those' and pointed at Tatl.

"What's wrong with that?!" she snapped.

"Really? So you must believe me!" Kafei said.

"We do, but if you're all right... I mean, I understand you don't want Anju to see you like this, but-" Anna started.

"No, that's not it," Kafei frowned, "I would go to her, even how I am now, but my wedding mask... I made a wedding mask and I promised Anju

I would marry her on the eve of the festival. When I was turned into this it was stolen from me by a grinning man..."

"You do not wish to break your promise, then," I said.

"I can't go back to her, not until I find the man who stole it and get it back," Kafei said with determination.

"We can he-"

"I don't want your help," Kafei said, "the only thing I want you three to do is tell Anju not to worry."

Anna went to protest as Kafei handed her a pendant of some sort.

"Please give this to her," he said, "she'll understand."

"But-!" Anna said.

"We will," I nodded, "the best of luck to you."

"Thank you," he nodded as he placed the mask on his face again.

"We-"

I grabbed Anna's arm and lead her down the stairs, though she protested.

"Kratos! We've got to help h-"

"He does not wish for us to help him in that matter," I said, "it's best we respect that and do what he did ask of us."

"We can't just not tell Anju where he is!"

"This is not our problem, it's theirs,"

"You jerk-!"

"I mean, Anna, that it is their test of their love," I said, "it is an obstacle which they must face together to truly realize their deepest feelings for

one another."

Anna stared at me a minute and then grinned, hugging me tightly.

"Oh you are so sweet, Kratos!"

"..." I coughed.

"You're right! ...But if we just HAPPEN to see the guy who did it-"

"Then we'll do something," I said, "for now, let's get this to Anju."

"Right-o!" Anna winked.

I smiled slightly as we headed back out the door and into the rain-...

"Who the heck is that?"

A man was sitting on the bench by the bridge, rapidly playing some sort of instrument. In fact, he looked much like the man in the windmill back

in Hyrule... Anna walked up to him.

"Whatcha doing?" she asked.

I sighed and went after her. She always had an annoying habit of walking straight up to suspicious people. I tell you, that was rather annoying

a problem when we were on the run...

"Why hello there, young lady! I'm playing a tune! Playing a tune!" he said.

He's grinning rather eerily...though he does not seem to be a thief.

"I used to be part of a band, you know," he grinned, "me and a bunch of animals!"

"...Animals," Anna repeated.

"Yes, yes! The Bremen Musicians! But...but why was the DOG the leader?!"

"...The dog was the leader," Anna said even more slowly.

"YES! Oh yes! But I got the best of him! I stole his mask! I did! I stole it!"

Anna was starting to back away.

"But now that song! That annoying song!"

He was rambling. Completely. ...Though...

"Anna, step back,"

"No problem," she said, racing behind me.

I took out the ocarina and played the song of storms-

"WOAH-!" Anna cried.

Just as his look-a-like in Hyrule did, he lost it. His eyes bugged out of his head and he began to hyperventilate, ranting more about this 'dog'

before handing over a bird-like mask for a reason I didn't quite fathom. We left quite shortly after that, taking the mask with us.

"That guy was NUTS! And we're talking like that 'Rodyle' guy nuts!"

I nodded as I examined the mask.

"We got another one, huh? Wonder what it does..." Anna looked at it.

Silence.

"PUT IT ON! PUT IT ON!" she cheered.

"But-"

She glared at me. I sighed in defeat and placed the mask on my face...nothing happened.

"Huh..." Anna blinked.

"It's just a mask, Anna, the 'Kafei' one didn't really do anything either,"

"Yeah but..." she sighed, "man, how boring."

"Hm..." Tatl examined it a bit, "...hey! Try playing your ocarina!"

"Why?" I asked.

"Just do it!"

I sighed and brought the ocarina to my lips-...and suddenly began to play a rather festive song I did not recall knowing ever before. Now

sooner had I done so a dog trotted up to me, barking in tune with the melody. I stopped playing and the dog wandered away...

"...That was weird..." Anna said.

"...I concur," I stated.

I took off the mask and pocketed it. Hm, it was strange but if might be useful for something later down the road. At any rate, we headed to the

inn and Anna handed Anju the pendant.

"Oh! Th-this is!" Anju gasped. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome," Anna smiled.

"I believe him..." Anju whispered, smiling, "thank you again! Please, I must thank you somehow!"

"That won't be necessary," I said, "it was our pleasure."

"Yeah," Anna nodded, "don't worry about it, good luck with you two, okay?"

She looked at me and smiled and I felt my heart skip a beat. ...I loved to see her smile... Ever since the first time I saw her do it, I admired that

beautiful expression.

We left the inn and Anna sighed dreamily, hugging me tightly.

"Isn't that just so...fluffy?" she smiled.

Fluffy?

"...I missed you, you know," she smiled up at me.

I felt the air leave my lungs.

"...I missed you too," I stated slowly.

We drew closer when Tatl dingled annoyingly.

"Um, okay guys," she said, "we've done everything, maybe we should get heading for the Swamp now?"

I nodded.

"Yes...let's stop by the shop to gather supplies," I said.

"Right-o!" Anna chirped. "Let's go!"

...I never have been the type to be able to be that enthusiastic, despite what the circumstances. I always admired that about her, that she

was her, always and forever. ...At any rate, the shop was plain with the exception of a scarecrow. I recalled seeing one in the observatory

before as well, which piqued my interest as to why such a thing would be here.

"Huh," Anna blinked, "you know-"

"Hey there, beautiful!"

Anna yelped and I flinched. The scarecrow was...talking?

"You kids look surprised about something," it said, "haven't you ever seen a talking scarecrow?"

We shook our heads.

"Oooh...so I guess that means you haven't seen a DANCING one either!" it said. "What do you say? We can dance and dance until nightfall!

Dawn! Next nightfall!"

"Er...no, that's okay," Anna said, "I mean, it'd be fun, but no..."

"Oh fine, suit yourself," it crossed its arms, "you know, I've heard of a mystical melody that can manipulate time."

Anna and I exchanged glances.

"I hear if you play each of the three notes twice, it will make time go forward twelve hours!" it bounced. "Oh! And you can slow down time by

playing it BACKWARDS, nice, huh!?"

"That's impossible," I stated.

"Try it!" Anna grinned.

"..." I sighed, "Anna-"

"Come on! Do it! Please?" she smiled.

"..."

I took out the ocarina and played the song of time backwards-

...And suddenly the scarecrow was moving very slowly.

"...What just-?" I started.

"It works!" Anna gaped. "Try the twelve hour one now!"

As much as I hated to admit it, even I was interested now. I put the ocarina to my lips and played the first three notes twice- Then there was a

whirl that felt much like when we had come back to the dawn of the first day. Once it stopped I looked out the window and noticed the sunlight

had gone.

"..." I blinked.

"That is SO cool!"

"W-what?! No it's not!" Tatl dingled. "We've got twelve hours less, now! We've barely got over twenty-four hours now!"

Ah...yes, I had forgotten about that...

"Oh, bah," Anna shrugged, "we have all the time we want! We'll just go back to the first day!"

"...I have a different idea," I said.

I played the song again.

"What the-!? Are you CRAZY!?" Tatl gasped. "We have like, twelve hours now! If that!"

I pocketed the ocarina and headed for the door.

"I know,"

"Huh-? Wait, did I miss something? Where are we going?" Anna asked, following after me.

"Kafei said he wanted to wait for the thief to show up," I said, "so time has passed, I want to see if he ever found him."

"But what if we missed him?" Anna asked.

"Then when we go back next time we can catch him, understand?" I said slowly.

"Huh-? ...Oh, so if we...yeah! That makes sense!" her eyes lit up. "Cool, let's do it!"

"But-!" Tatl started.

"But when we got back to the first day, we are going for the Swamplands," I said, "we've been putting that off far too long already."

Anna pouted, but nodded.

"Okay, fine, deal,"

I nodded.

"Let's be off, then..."

When we arrived at Kafei's residence, we found the door unlocked...and the salesman from the shop we had just left standing there, shaking

his head and fretting like a mother that had lost her children.

"What the-? What are you doing here?" Anna asked.

"You're the two that helped Kafei, yeah?" he asked.

"Yes," I asked, "I assume you know him?"

He handed me a package of sorts.

"Kafei went after the guy who took his mask, somewhere off in Ikana Canyon," he said, "he wanted to make sure this got to his mother, and...I

have something for you."

He pulled out a yellow mask, a 'keaton' I believe...the one Kafei was wearing.

"He wanted me to give this to you, he doesn't need it any more," he said.

"Ikana canyon?" Anna asked. "How far is that?"

"That's a hard area to get through..." Tatl dingled, "I'm pretty sure you need a horse."

And of course, we had no idea where Noishe was...

"What if he's hurt?" Anna asked. "We should go after him-"

"No, Kafei's doing what he thinks he needs to do, on his own," the man shook his head, "...go after him if you want, I won't stop you, but

please make sure his mama gets that first."

I nodded and Anna verbally accepted the task. The package...hm, delivering it directly to her would be necessary, of course, seeing as time was

running out... However, as we made our way to the mayor's office we found the postman leaning against a wall, shuddering violently.

...We should just continue on our own business, but I have a feeling that's not going to happen.

"Hey, are you okay?" Anna asked.

"I want to flee, I want to flee...but...but my post, I can't leave..." he whimpered.

Hm...

"What? That's silly, if you think your life is in danger you have to do what you need to do!" Anna scoffed.

"You didn't understand, young lady, I can't, I have a duty to the Mayor-"

It was then he caught sight of the package I was holding the man had asked us to deliver.

"Th-that-! Is that for Madame Aroma?!"

How could he tell?

"That seal, Mr. Kafei always sent something with that seal, and it is clearly a mother's gift!"

It was? ..Hm, perhaps that was just a 'Termina' thing...

"P-please, you are delivering it, yes?" he asked. "Could I...could I please take it in your place?!"

"Huh? What for?" Tatl asked.

"It will occupy my mind, good friends," he said, "please, I ask humbly of you!"

I sighed and handed over the package.

"Th-thank you, friends!" he took it, smiling. "I will be able to fulfill my duty! Thank you!"

And then he ran off.

"...That was odd," I stated simply.

"He's a little too excited about mail, don't you think?" Anna asked.

"Well, now that that's over, what should we do? Go back in time?" Tatl asked.

I thought over it a minute and frowned. Hm, we could attempt to follow Kafei, but if it was truly inaccessible without Noishe we would be

wasting our time. Other than that I could see no other logical course of action then playing the song and then heading for the swamplands...

"I believe we should head back, there's nothing left for us to do here," I stated.

"But if we go back, it'll just make everything go back, right? So Anju and Kafei..."

I noted the disappointment in Anna's face and hastened to answer her.

"It'll be all right, Anna," I said, "we have to do this for now. Once we manage to reclaim the mask we can help them again, and this time

permanently. So-"

"YIPPEEEE!"

Anna and I turned and saw the mailman from before running towards us, grinning like the...eccentric, person he was. He spotted us and made

a beeline, which instinctively made me step in front of Anna.

"Thank you so much! I delivered the letter and Madame has allowed me to flee!" he grinned. "I can never repay your kindness-! Oh wait, yes I

can! Here!"

He removed his hat and all but shoved it into my hands.

"..."

"Take this cap, you can look through mailboxes with it, you know," he winked, "find some good stuff!"

"...Wait, you mean you frisk people's mail?" Anna asked.

He stopped grinning a minute before he stammered out an answer.

"Th-that's ridiculous! Just-! ...Thank you and take it bye!"

Then he raced for the nearest exit.

"...That was odd," I said again.

"A lot of odd stuff seems to happen with us, huh?" Anna said.

That was an understatement of extravagant proportions.

"Well...we've got a lot of masks," Tatl said, "they might help later, you know. We should probably get heading for the swamp now, after Kratos

plays the song."

I nodded.

"All right, stay close to me..."

I raised the ocarina to my lips...

Then I jolted forward, the instrument clattering onto the ground.

"Kratos?!" Tatl dingled.

"Hey, are you all right-?" Anna started.

I shook my head, groaning.

"I...I'm all right, I just felt a little strange for a second,"

I bent down and picked up the ocarina-

"What the hell is that?!" Tatl cried.

"Why is-!?"

The Triforce mark had begun to glow on my hand as I went to pick it up.

"..." my eyes widened.

"What is that?" Tatl snapped again.

"Kratos, why is it doing that?" Anna asked. "It hasn't done that before, has it?"

I picked up the instrument and examined the back of my hand, bewildered.

"...No," I stated.

Strange...the only other time it had done that was when I fought Mithos...

"...Let's get going, we can worry about it later," I stated.

"But-"

"Staying here any longer will not be a wise course of action," I stated, "...now stay close to me."

She glared at me a minute before she huddled next to me. For a second time I brought the ocarina to my lips and then began to play the song

of time. This time, however, went off without much difficulty. For the second time the world distorted around us before whiting out. When the

world came back into focus we were once again in the clock tower, but the mask salesman was nowhere to be seen...

"Hey, isn't he supposed to still be here?" Anna asked.

"Yeah, where'd he go?" Tatl dingled.

"...Let's get going," I stated.

I didn't want to linger there much longer, something did not feel right.

"O...okay," Anna nodded.

Once we were out in the daylight, Anna rounded on me again.

"So why is the Triforce acting up?" she asked.

"..."

I looked at the glowing mark on my hand. Still there, still as bright as it was before. What was going on? Something must be wrong for it to be

acting up like this...were we in danger? I quickly scanned the area with my senses...finding nothing. Hmph, if we weren't in danger then there

was no reason for it to be doing such a thing...

"...Y'know, that kinda reminds me of Lloyd," Anna said.

"Pardon?" I asked, looking up at her.

"When I watched him from the exsphere," she smiled, "he would always make that face and looked at the back of his hand like that. It was

kinda sad, but kinda funny at the same time..."

"...Anna-"

"Exsphere? What's an expshere? And what's a Triforce? Gods you people are weird!" Tatl dingled.

"Oh can it, sparkles," Anna said.

"Would you stop calling me names?!"

Before they got into another spat I decided to change the subject.

"The swamplands are through that entrance, correct?" I asked, pointing toward the gate directly across from us. "We should get moving, I

would dislike to explore a dungeon over again simply because there was a lack of time."

They were annoying enough, were they not?

"Okay! Let's go!" Anna chirped.

So we made our way toward the exit and I thought momentarily that Anna had forgotten about the mark on my hand. I was wrong, obviously,

seeing as we had taken all but two steps when she asked about it again.

"Is something wrong, Kratos? Why else would it be doing that?"

I sighed.

"I don't know, but nothing seems to be wrong..." I trailed.

"Maybe-"

"Worrying about it right now will not help," I said, "be-...besides, it's stopped."

"Huh?"

I stared at the back of my hand again. The mark was gone, simply...gone. Anna looked at me, at my hand, then back at me before putting her

hands on her hips and glaring.

"Well, now I'm curious! That's just weird!" she said. "Why would it show up and then just go like that? Something's wrong here..."

I remained silent. Yes, something was off, but..

"Uh, guys? Swamp? Hello?" Tatl dingled.

"Oh hold your horses, puffball," Anna said.

I sighed and walked toward the gate as Tatl began to retaliate. I expected the guard to attempt to keep me within the walls, as last time, but

he quickly noted the sword I had strapped to my back.

"A sword...? Excuse me, sir," he said, "I apologize, it was wrong to treat you like a child."

...Respect? In this form? That was...rather impossible, I had thought.

"Dang straight!" Anna said. "So we can go past here, right-?"

"Woah woah there, little lady," the guard said, "you can't go out there, there are monsters!"

"I'm with him, though!" she pointed at me.

"Well..." he hesitated, "but it's dangerous, are you sure you can protect her?"

It took me a minute to realize he was addressing me.

"I-"

"Of course he can!" Anna grinned. "He's good like that, you know. He's the best swordsman ever!"

I coughed a bit, though I believe my cheeks flushed somewhat. Damn child tendencies...

"Well...all right then, take care of each other, okay?"

With that he moved out of the way.

"Thank you," I bowed my head slightly.

"Yeah, thanks!" Anna grinned. "C'mon, Kratos! Let's go!"

"Finally, we're actually getting somewhere," Tatl sighed.

Though I would not openly agree, I did in fact share her sentiments. The past three days felt all too much like that one time Lloyd and the

others had deterred from their quest to go on a treasure hunt for that 'Aifread' fellow... I believe Yuan had a name for things like that, once, he

called them 'side-quests'.

"Here we are, Termina field!" Tatl dingled.

I looked out at the grass before us, a dense, humid looking jungle of sorts tangled in the horizon.

"That's the swamp? It looks more like a rain forest," Anna huffed.

"Indeed," I stated.

"Well, come on!" Tatl flew forward. "My brother needs help, you know!"

"Yeah yeah, we're coming!" Anna said, walking forward. "Come on, Kratos!"

I looked at her, then down at my hand one last time before following her.

**I'm so sorry this took forever...-_-'....I haven't been able to write a lot for a few fics lately. My poor other Zelda story hasn't seen any **

**love for MONTHS...I've started it at least...**

**Cheresea: Well, at least you got it in.**

**Lloyd: Yep. **

**Genis: She's an egg under pressure-**

**Me: PRESSURE! NO-! (CRACKS)**

**Lloyd:...By Din's fire, Genis, you were right!**

**Genis: Yeah-...by Din's fire?**

**Lloyd:...**

**Cheresea: Odd.**

**Genis: I'll say, review if you want. **

**Me: MERRY CHRISTMAS! :D**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hm...I feel energetic today. n.n I've already done a lot of physical exercise today (Sure, it included wii sports, DDR and yoga, but there's **

**snow outside...stupid snow) so now let's true some mental gymnastics, nay? n.n **

**Cheresea: Since when is writing a story mental gymnastics?**

**Me:...Since I said so.**

**Genis: Well, her stories anyway...**

**Lloyd:Heh heh, yeah! Freakyanimegal owns nothing!**

**Me: Jerkies... n.n Let's go!**

"EEP!"

I ran in and dispatched the jelly-like creature that had jumped at Anna, my eye twitched a bit when the green goo that was left exploded and

hit me in the face. I wiped off the slime with my hand and looked at Anna, who grinned and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Woops," she said with a nervous chuckle.

I sighed.

"Anna..." I started.

"Okay, I'm sorry," she said, "I'm no good at fighting, but you always protect me anyway, right-?"

"That may be so," I said, "but..."

"I think he's just worried about you, Anna," Tatl dingled, "cute, you've got him well-trained."

I opened my mouth to speak when Anna laughed.

"Well of course I do!" she grinned.

Then I settled for shaking my head.

"Believe what you will," I stated.

The surrounding area was most comparable to that of the entrance to the Kokiri Forest. It was lush, green, thick trees here and there before a

coarser forest ahead. So far the trip had been uneventful aside from a brief attack from the creature, but I still was not quite ready to relax in

the least. We continued walking until we passed by a large tree that had a doodle of sorts etched into it. Tatl stopped and hovered by it, her

wings drooping.

"...What's wrong?" Anna asked.

"The skull-kid..." she trailed, "he drew this. Back when we first met."

"..."

"He was your friend, right?" Anna frowned. "Oh...I-"

"He was crying, because his friends had left him all alone," Tatl explained to us, "me and Tael always had trouble making friends so...we were

really happy when he became our friend."

We stood there in silence before Tatl hovered back over to us.

"Okay, I'm done reminiscing," she said with a bob, "let's get going."

"If you're sure you're okay," Anna nodded, "let's go, Kratos!"

I nodded briefly before we headed into the woods. They were not devoid of monsters, yet the majority of our encounters were of bats and

more of the jelly-creatures that were out in the field. We walked until we came to what was undoubtedly the swamp, judging by the sudden

humidity that had settled in the air.

"WHEW!" Anna said loudly, wiping her forehead. "It's...stifling!"

"I know! My wings feel so heavy now!" Tatl whined.

"Well, if we want to find the one Tael spoke of we must go in," I stated, "so-..."

I stopped. The water...was purple? It certainly did not look healthy nor safe... Lily-pads went off down the waterway, and a building that raised

out of the swamp before us was stationed over a boat. Hm, that could be our way around...

"Let's go in and ask if we can rent that boat," I stated, "the water does not look very safe."

"Eeeww..." Anna grimaced as she looked at it, "I'm not touching that stuff."

Didn't I just-? ...Nevermind. It was of little consequence. We climbed up to the building via a ladder and Anna yelped when a deku akin to the

one in town popped up.

"Greetings, travelers!" it said.

"H-hey! Aren't you that guy from Clock Town!?" Anna gaped.

"Clock Town? I wish! I'd kill for a land plot there," it laughed in its strange, squeaking way, "but alas...I do not. Oh well, say, are you two

interested in-?"

"No," I said simply, "Anna, let's go inside."

"Ouch! Kratos, that was rude!" she scoffed.

"..."

I honestly found it hard to care, but if I said such a thing it would no doubt merely anger her further.

"What is it you wanted?" Anna asked the Deku.

"Are you interested in buying some magic beans?" it smiled.

"OOOOH! Magic beans!?" Anna's eyes lit up. "Cool!"

By the gods...I loved that woman dearly, but she was so easily distracted.

...Then again, I suppose this could explain where Lloyd got it...

"I would like to say that, but unfortunately I'm sold out!"

There was a long silence.

"WHAT!?" Anna shouted. "Then why did you just ask us?!"

"...Force of habit?"

Anna gave the creature a dirty look that made most (meaning Yuan) back-step. With that she grabbed my arm and dragged me into the

building. The interior was not anything special, aside from the two counters. Behind one stood a large man that greatly resembled the one that

used to work in Castle Town's weapon store, the other was empty.

"Welcome!" he beamed down at us. "Did you come to enter the photography contest?"

"...Pho...to...?" Anna trailed.

"Photography is a practice that allows you to instantly take a picture of whatever you wish," I explained, seeing it did not exist in Sylvarant,

"through the use of an object called a 'camera'."

"Woah! Really!?" Anna gasped. "Cool! I want to try!"

"Eh? You kids don't have a camera? I think I have an extra around here..." he began to shuffle around under the desk before he grinned, "here

you go! Take good care of it, okay?"

Anna eagerly took the box-like camera, grinning ear to ear.

"Cool! ...So how do you work this thing?"

It appeared to be a rather primitive model, but it was still a camera nonetheless.

"Take the best picture on our swamp cruise and win a prize!" he grinned. "...Though uh...the cruise isn't working right now. The old lady who

works it hasn't come in for a few days...I wonder if she's okay."

"Old lady?" Anna tilted her head to the side.

"Two old sisters live at their potion shop a bit down the river," he said, "usually one of them works the counter over there, but she hasn't come

in. I'd go check on them myself, but my shifts not over for a few hours..."

Oh no, I know where this is going-

"We'll go check on them!" Anna said.

I sighed.

"I agree, we won't get anywhere just sitting here," Tatl nodded.

"If the only way to get further into this area is to take the boat, I assume we have no other choice."

"Kratos, that's cold," Anna scoffed at me.

"At any rate, let's see if we can find their house," I said as I turned to leave.

"Hey, you're not listening to me!"

"I can listen and not respond, it is a possibility," I pointed out.

Anna huffed.

"Fine fine, let's just go then."

Down the river, he had said? Without a boat I didn't see how we could manage to get down there with the water in its current state.

Then...the Deku mask allows one to travel over water, perhaps I could use it to get across on the large lilypads? But then how could Anna get

across-

"I know!" Anna said loudly. "I'll fly over with the fairy mask, and you can hop over with the salad mask!"

"...The salad mask?" I questioned.

"What?" she blinked. "It's a plant, right?"

"..."

"That's kinda rude to the Deku Scrubs, Anna..." Tatl pointed out.

"Huh-? Oh, I guess you're right..." she frowned, "all right then, I won't do it again. Now...let's get flapping!"

She grinned and put on the fairy mask she had been carrying, hovering in front of me.

"See? Get it? 'Flapping'?" she dingled.

I decided to pretend she hadn't said anything of that nature as I slid the Deku mask over my face.

"What? It wasn't funny?" Anna asked Tatl as I finished my transformation.

"Uh...well..." Tatl trailed.

"Let's get going," I squeaked.

"Yeah, what he said," Tatl followed after me as I began to hop to the nearest lilypad.

"Hey! You could at least answer me!" Anna huffed as she followed.

It appeared I was correct in my assumption that the lilypads would allow us access to the sister's house when the dock jutting out into the

water came into view. I hopped onto it and then removed the mask, returning to my human form as Anna did so a second after she landed

behind me.

"Hey, do you see that?" she asked, pointing up.

Above the canopy appeared to be a dark pink smog of sorts that was billowing from the direction the trail before us lead. The man did say it

was a potion shop, so apparently that smog must have been the exhaust from their various works.

"Someone must be home, right?" she asked. "If they've got a fire going- or whatever that is."

"Only one way to be certain," I stated as I began to walk down the trail.

"Yep," Anna chirped as she followed me.

Aside from incident with a few deku babas, we easily found the potion shop, a building akin to that of a treehouse with a single ladder leading

up to it. Colored smoke was billowing out from the top of a chimney stack, giving the air a distinct smell of which I could not quite place.

"Huh..." Anna blinked, "it looks like someone's home, anyway..."

I nodded before ascending the ladder, opening the door we saw the silhoutte of an old woman slumped over on the counter, probably

sleeping. Anna walked forward and I looked around, noticing the strange concoctions and the brooms hung on the wall, like they were worth

more than...

Wait.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" Anna asked the woman. "Are you-?"

I pulled her back and got in front of her as the old crone looked up.

"Wha-? Ah! Hello, customers!" she cackled.

"Koume?" I spat. "How are you still alive?"

"Who?" Anna asked.

"How did you know my name?!" the witch gasped. "What are you, some kind of freak!?"

"She's one of the witches I fought while freeing Martel," I said to Anna, "in the desert."

"Desert? What desert?" she blinked. "Can't stand arid places like that, what's with you, anyway? You're all tense."

Wait...Mae had said that they were people here that resembled others. I had known that, hadn't I? Anju most definitely was the cuccoo lady

from Kakiriko, and Gorman (the performer in town) was definitely Ingo, so why should I be so surprised about this...?

"Kratos?" Anna asked.

"Hm-? Oh, I...apologize," I said, relaxing a bit, "perhaps I simply mistook you for someone else."

"Well, that's quite all right dearie," she smiled, "I have to apologize to you as well. You see, we're currently out of stock. My sister Kotake went

into the woods to gather herbs, but she hasn't come back yet...to tell the truth, I'm a bit worried."

I thought it was a bit sad I wasn't surprised when I found myself running about the lost woods looking for her sister. To make matters worse,

there were many turtle like creatures that obscured the path and were difficult to slay, thus Anna had reverted into the fairy form to avoid the

danger and keep up with me. However, I didn't have much time to fight seeing as I was chasing a monkey around... Yes, we had walked

toward the woods and a monkey of all things had appeared before us and told us to follow. Apparently listening to any strange creature that

appears and tells you to do something is mandatory in this whole 'Hero of Time' business...

"Hey! There she is!" Anna dingled.

I looked up ahead into the clearing and saw Kotake laying in a heap on the ground, several monkeys hopping around her as if trying to signal

to me to come closer.

"Are you all right?!" Anna asked, coming back to her human- Kokiri, form, that is.

"Ooooo...I can't move, that darn, pesky skull kid!" she moaned.

Hm, this appears to be a repeating occurrence.

"He was here, too? Hey, are you going to be all right?" Anna asked the old woman.

"Ah...I need something, something that revives strength..." she moaned.

Red potion? Hm...I didn't have any on me.

"Oh, you mean like this?" Anna asked, taking out a red potion.

I stared.

"...When did you-?" I started.

"I got it before we left Clock Town," she said, "I used that postman's hat we got to look in the mail box, someone was MAILING a red potion,

can you believe that?"

"..." I sighed.

"What?" she asked.

"You stole someone's mail...?" I sighed again, rubbing my forehead.

"...What? What else is that postman's hat good for?" she asked.

"When did you even have time to do that?" I asked.

"When you were trying to buy a map off that tingle guy, I got bored," she shrugged.

I sighed again.

"Anna..."

"What? It won't matter once we go back in time again, anyway," she huffed.

"True as that may be, it wasn't-"

"All right all right, I'm sorry, I won't do it again," she huffed, "I-"

"Hellooo? Can I have some help or noooot?" Kotake said bitterly.

"Oh! Right, sorry," Anna handed her the jar, "I hope this helps."

The witch eagerly took it and chugged the entire contents in seconds before bleching loudly. Tatl and Anna both let out various sounds of

disgust while I shook my head.

"WOO! THAT'S a pick-me-up!" she cackled. "Thanks a lot, you two! I feel totally rejuvinated!"

Out of seemingly nowhere she conjured a broom, floating on it before us in mid-air.

"I owe you kids," she smiled at us, "come by the touring office and I'll let you have a free boat-ride! Covers the entire swamp, you know, you

two little lovebirds will have a blast!"

"Ooooh! Is it romantic?" Anna grinned.

"Thank you," I told Kotake, "it would be helpful in allowing us to find what we are seeking."

Anna glared at me.

"...What is it?"

"...Nothing," she sighed, "can we go on it once we're done though? Just for the heck of it?"

"I see no reason to do so-"

Her face fell.

"But I suppose we can, if we finish our job here," I ended.

She grinned again.

"Thanks, granny!" Anna said to the hag. "We'll totally take you up on that offer!"

"Eee hee hee!" she cackled again, taking off. "I'll be waiting for you! Thanks a lot!"

Anna waved as the witch flew off and I stood there feeling the full brunt of irony in the fact that the woman who we had just saved and

thanked us generously was the one I killed and died cursing me.

This type of thing tends to happen a lot with me.

"Let's get going," Anna said, "I want to see- hey, where did the monkeys go?"

As a matter of fact, I had noticed the small primates had vanished.

"...Let's make our way out of the woods," I stated.

Luckily, I have a very good memory when it comes to direction. I suppose its a skill you pick up after traveling a good while. At any rate, we

came back into the clearing of the witches homes when we found the monkeys that had led us in before.

"Oh! There you guys are," Anna smiled, "thank you so much for helping us earlier-"

"Big brother in trouble!" the lead monkey shouted.

"...Eh?" Anna blinked.

"You help! Dekus mean, Deku say big brother kidnap princess!"

Oh joy, another kidnapped princess, what ever could be more shocking?

"You help big brother? You strong, yes?" the monkey asked me.

I didn't bother with my usual 'how is this to our benefit?' procedure, I had gotten used to this sort of thing. Perhaps it was because all through

Hyrule the only way I ever accomplished my task was by helping absolutely everyone that I happened to run into.

"Of course," I said, "where is he?"

Anna gasped.

"...What is it?" I asked.

"You're not gonna...you know, tell them no? You're not going to say we don't have time for it and stuff?"

"No point in that," I said, "this is how it goes, and if I did say no you would end up coercing me into doing it at any rate."

"True..." she mused, biting her lip and glancing to the side in thought.

"Big brother in Deku Palace!" the lead monkey said. "Boat go there! Ooo, oo!"

And with that oh so descriptive summary, they ran off.

"...Well, that's convenient," Anna blinked.

"Indeed," I answered.

"So let's get going to the boat and stuff already," Tatl dingled.

I nodded and we headed back for the water that lead to the first building we had encountered in the swamp. After a brief transformation and

hopping across the toxic water once more we found ourselves once again in the travel agency, this time with a warm greeting from Kotake and

a free ride on the boat below. We boarded without much event aside from being encouraged to take pictures for a contest, then we headed on

our way.

"Ooooooh! That waterfall is beautiful!" Anna grinned, pointing out said feature.

"I suppose," I said.

"Hey look! A frog!" she pointed out on a piece of driftwood, a large frog jumping up and down for no apparent reason.

"I see," I said.

"A-! ...Giant purple octocrok?"

That however, did procure my attention. I directed my gaze ahead at the monster that blocked our path through the river and reached for my

shield to fend off any projectile attacks-

And then Anna completely surprised me by taking a picture of it.

"Nice!" she grinned.

"...You just-?" I started.

We may have been in danger, and she took a picture? She certainly was always good at taking the edge off me, but....still, this was rather-

Wait a minute. The flash went off in the octocroks eyes and it's flailing...and the tip of the boat is rather sharp, and heading right for its snout-

"Woah-!" Anna cried, clinging to me.

The boat impaled the monster and it let out a strange cry of pain before disappearing into the water as most of its kind did when defeated.

Anna and I stared down at the water a minute, unable to think of something meaningful to say. That was quite all right, however, seeing as

Tatl said it for us.

"That was anti-climatic, it died to a boat," she said.

"Hmph," I snorted.

"How come there's no blood on the front of the boat...?" Anna wondered.

"It's best not to wonder too much about such things," I sighed, "trust me."

The boat came to a stop at a dock in front of a large, colorful wall of sorts that was surrounded by large plants. Suddenly, the monkey from

before appeared at the door, jumping up and down and urging us to come in.

"That must be the palace, then?" Anna asked, getting off.

"I would assume," I said as I disembarked with her.

"Big brother in palace through here!" the monkey reported. "But no let humans in!"

I sighed, taking out the Deku mask.

"It seems I'll be having to use this again, then?" I stated grudgingly, looking at the thing.

"So I'd better grow some wings, huh?" Anna asked, pulling out her own mask.

Once again we transformed and then made our way into Deku Palace. Through the wall was a large body of swampy water with a bridge

across that led to another walled in area that was guarded by two deku scrubs.

"Halt!" one squeaked. "Commoners may not enter the palace!"

"Yes! May not!" the other chorused.

"However! Since it is a special occasion, you may be allowed to see the treacherous monkey that will be punished for angering our king by

kidnapping our precious princess!"

"Yes! Treacherous monkey that took our precious princess!"

"...Do they always repeat each other like that?" Anna asked the world in general.

"I don't know," Tatl dingled.

The Deku rustled, drawing my attention.

"You may go in, but only straight ahead, understand? Only straight ahead!"

"Yeah! Nowhere else! Just straight!"

"That's a yes," Anna said.

With that the scrubs burrowed into their flowers, allowing us a free reign into the palace.

"...Something is telling me this is going to be a long day..." Anna trailed.

I chuckled a bit.

"Then we best get it on with, yes?"

So we walked down into the Deku Throne Room.

**GASP! I UPDATED! D:**

**Genis: We can see that.**

**Me: And I did it in three sittings. n.n Not ten!**

**Cheresea: It usually take you that many times...?**

**Me:...My attention span isn't quite efficient, all right? -_-'**

**Lloyd: Like me!**

**Me: O.O...T.T**

**Lloyd: Huh? What did I do?**

**Cheresea: (Smacks self)**

**Genis: Please review, if you want, I mean....**


	6. Chapter 6

**Oh GOD I love Kratos' theme song!!! What with the brass and the stacatto piccolo...I get chills!!! n.n **

**Lloyd: St...sta...?**

**Cheresea: I'm confused.**

**Genis: Freakyanimegal owns nothing.**

**Me: Damn I'd love to play this song...there's gotta be a clarinet part in it....**

In the Deku throne room we found a sight of several dekus dancing around the throne, a large one with a floral arrangement on its head shouting

out commands and overall ranting to his underlings as they scurried about him. There was a large fire in the middle and off to the side there was

a cage where a monkey was tied to a stake.

Hm, it appears we found the 'brother'.

"THIS FOUL MONKEY KIDNAPPED BY BELOVED PRINCESS!" the Deku king roared. "HE MUST BE PUT TO DEATH! TO DEATH! ALL LOOK UPON THE

FACE OF THE SOON TO BE DECEASED!!"

"Geez, guy needs to lay off the caffeine," Anna muttered.

"I didn't do it!" the monkey cried. "Please, you must believe me! If you don't listen to me the princess will be in grave danger!"

What else is new? I sighed, supposing that we'd better find a way to go in and save him. Turning back into a Hylian here wouldn't be the best

option, as I'd be overpowered. Blast, at times like this I really wish I could just draw out my wings and get them out of my way.

"Look! There's a hole up there!" Anna dingled, gesturing up.

"Indeed," I said, "let's find a way to get up there..."

Somehow I knew I'd end up dodging guards again, every time I go near a large building that isn't any sort of temple I end up running away from

incompetent guards and ducking around for a way to get where it was I wanted to go. Of all the things I needed now, it had to be that the exit

was reachable only through FLIGHT. Fate enjoys poking fun at my shortcomings, but luckily there is an option to get up there. Rumors that there

is a man under the gardens that sells beans, the type that grew into large hovering plants back in Hyrule. It was just a rumor, but I find almost

every rumor I come across is true once you get involved. After zipping around another corner, I finally found a hole that lead to an underground

cave.

"Oooooh! Spiffy!" Anna dingled, slipping off the mask as I did so, looking around. "It's nice down here!"

"It is! There're plants and a nice clear little pond!" Tatl dingled.

I suppose it was rather serene, but my attention had been draw to the path to the left where I heard a distinct munching.

"W- What is that?" Anna asked, edging behind me.

"Stay behind me," I stated, walking forward.

There was a smaller cave connected to the main one in which a large, fat, pale man was munching on something from a bag; it much reminded me

of the way Lloyd devoured potato chips when he discovered the treat in Tethe'alla. Regardless, judging by the bag I guessed we'd found what

we were looking for.

"Excuse me, sir," I spoke up, walking forward.

"Hm?" he looked at us, talking between mouthfulls. "How can I help you kids?"

Repulsed as I was by the bits of food frequently visible in his maw and the shreds that fell from his lips, Anna asked for me.

"Do you sell magic beans?" Anna asked.

"Magic beans?" I looked at her. "Anna, they're not magical, they're just-"

"You said they flew!"

"In Hyrule, yes," I nodded, "but it's merely another type of plant-"

"Flying plants are magical," she snapped, putting her hands on her hips.

"Unusual maybe, but not necessarily magical-"

I saw her glare and cross her arms over her chest.

"...I'm not going to win this argument, am I?" I sighed.

"Nope, now ask the man if he'll sell us some magic beans," she said.

I sighed again before doing as I was instructed and within a few minutes our pockets were full of seeds and empty of ruppees. The man was a

miser, it took twenty ruppees for a single bean. Regardless, we had what we needed to proceed to the monkey's rescue.

...Why is it I only now just realize how strange that sounds?

After more traversing we managed to make it to the entrance to the monkey's sell, Anna (back in fairy form) flew over to the struggling monkey

with Tatl as they tried to coax him to calm down.

"Little Deku boy, please!" he begged. "You must listen to me! The princess is in danger!"

"I believe you, but we're here to save you at the moment-" I started.

"No! Not me! Her!" he 'ooh ooh'ed. "You must save her! If you don't she'll be eaten by a monster!"

A monster, big surprise.

"Please, do you have any sort of instrument?" he asked. "A melody is the only way to get in!"

Again, I'm shocked.

"Take out those Deku Pipe thingies!" Anna said.

I sighed and took out the instrument that had shifted shape with me, listening carefully as the little simian showed me how it was I could enter

the temple of Woodfall. Though in retrospect, playing it with all the Dekus still dancing around probably wasn't my most ingenious moment.

"That song!" the King shouted. "Only the Princess and myself know that song!"

"See? See?" the monkey said. "The princess is my friend! I-"

"FORCED MY DARLING PRINCESS TO TELL YOU THE SONG!!" the king roared again. "You shall pay with your life! YOUR LIIIIFFEEEE!!!"

My body almost got into a battle stance on instinct when they merely started the preparations up again. I went to grab the monkey and make a

hasty exit before the guards surrounded me.

I wish dearly I could still cast Judgment.

Thus I landed flat on my little Deku snout at the palace gates, muttering as I stood and removed the mask.

"Hmph, pleasant," I scoffed.

"Geez, could've just asked us to leave," Anna pouted, crossing her arms as she did so.

"Still, we have the song," I said, looking up toward the mountain that was were the temple resided, or so I had been told by Tatl, "if we hurry and

rescue the princess I'm certain she'll be able to save the monkey, if he is innocent."

Anna scoffed at me before I spoke up again to ease her temperment.

"It's only a possibility, Anna," I said, "that's all."

"Well...fine, whatever, let's just get a move on!" she said, looking around. "How do you think we can get up there?"

There were vines and a ledge on the side of the mountain and numerous Deku flowers and lilypads around, it was almost like the goddesses

were begging us to take the path they paved out for us on vegetation.

...The goddesses? Hmph, I couldn't care less whether they did exist or not, but it was still strange to find myself referring to them so casually. Still,

it wasn't like the Triforce on my hand had just showed up for no good reason. Speaking of which... I looked at the back of my left hand and saw it

was normal, that the mark had been gone for a while. Hm...

"Kratos? Kratos....hello," Anna poked my shoulder.

"Stop that," I stated, "now let's get started."

Though I have battled large insects before, I must say the dragonflies in this area were seriously in need of of one of those 'makeovers' Anna

talked about. Ugly creatures, and very annoying when they tried to attack in mid-air. At least twice I had been hovering around with those girlish

flower petals and almost got stabbed by said dragonflies. Nonetheless, we managed to get up the mountain with little difficulty before I spotted

something that almost made me want to scream:

The owl.

"Hoo, hoo!" it hooted. "I see you've gotten a knack for this sort of thing now? Hoo?"

"Who's this guy?" Anna pointed, standing next to me as I tried not to hiss.

"What do you want?" I snapped a little too quickly.

"Came to see how you were doing, hoo," it 'smiled', "and there's something interest I know that can help you..."

He twisted his head upside down, making Anna move a little closer to me.

"Would you like to know what it is?" he asked.

"If this is going to be another lecture about nothing, I'll pass," I said coldly.

"Huh? You know this guy or something?" Tatl asked.

"You could say that..." I trailed, my eyes not leaving the bird.

"Hoo, hoo! Look on this stone I'm perched on, see anything interesting?"

He was seated on a large stone tablet, some words and a song inscribed-

"Another one?" I sighed.

"Surely you've seen the owl statues around this land?" he asked. "If you strike one with your sword, you will be able to immediately warp to the

one you wish if you play this song, hoo."

He looked down at the stone and pecked his beak against the score, straightening up again as I sighed and took out the ocarina. I should know

better than to try to reason with this creature, getting it to stop talking was about as possible as teaching Lloyd calculus-....somehow I think I've

said something like that before, but I really couldn't care.

"The Song of Soaring?" Anna read, her eyes lighting up. "Oooh! I wanna hear it! Play it, Kratos!"

I fought a small smile at hers before placing the instrument to my lips and playing the song. I fiddled with the melody a bit, getting a feel for it

before the owl hooted again.

"Splendid, splendid!" he flapped his wings. "I hope it aids you in your quest. Oh, by the wwaaaaaayyyy...."

He slowly turned his head all the way around as he said 'way', disturbing me slightly and making Anna inch toward me.

"Have you seen it, yet?" he asked.

"Seen what, precisely?" I asked.

"The mark," it said.

My eyes widened and it hooted.

"I see you have, farewell, hoo!"

"Wait-!"

"What? What mark?" Anna asked.

The bird was already gone. I snarled a bit and looked down at my hand again, still seeing nothing out of the ordinary. It knew about it, then?

Somehow I shouldn't be surprised, that owl seemed to know much more than anyone else should know, it always had.

"...There's no point wondering about it," I told her, "let's press ahead."

"What a creep!" Tatl shivered. "You've met him before? Does he stalk you or something?"

I wouldn't be surprised...

At any rate, we continued our way up into the mountain only to find it was hollow, containing a whole marsh of its own in the center. Planks of

wood were piled up leading to an altar of somesort that stood up on the other side of the poisoned water.

"Let me guess...we need to get ALL the way over there, right?" she asked.

"It appears so," I stated.

"...How about this, I'll just fly over and wait for you," she laughed nervously, taking out the fairy mask.

"Or you could fly over with that mask, and I can fly it back to him and he can use it to get over there," Tatl suggested.

I noted it was quite silent as the two of us turned to look at the glowing being.

"...I shouldn't have said that, should have I?" Tatl began to quiver, her glow dimming.

A few minutes later Tatl was griping about her aching wings, dropping the fairy mask into my hands as she felt onto my head and continued to

gripe about how much energy it took her to fly the mask back over to me after Anna had used it to get to the other side. Truthfully, I wondered

how it was she could carry something if she visibly lacked any sort of hands...yet another thing I had learned not to question. Though I was not to

fond of the idea of using the mask to transform myself into a miserable little insect, we were in a hurry after all...and I couldn't leave Anna over

there by herself. I sighed and placed the mask over my face, feeling that strange twisting sensation as I became another sort of being.

"..." I gasped somewhat, looking down at my hands.

Who would have thought, fairies actually did have hands...they were in fact just tiny humanoids surrounded by light, thus other than sprouting

wings, glowing blue, and being significantly smaller I had not changed much. Tatl was in fact a young girl- maybe about ten, by human standards,

who stood there with her arms crossed over her little dress and pouted at me.

"Well, good to see you can fly okay," she scoffed, "now come on! The sooner we get over there the sooner I can rest!"

With a huff she buzzed off toward the altar, leaving me to sigh a bit before following after her. It was a little awkward at first, but having had

wings before at any rate it was not that big of a change. I landed a minute later and handed the fairy mask to Anna, who giggled a bit as she

took it from me.

"You look a little uncomfortable," she teased with a grin.

"Tch," I stated, walking up to the platform on the altar.

A picture of a Deku Scrub was painted on it, but right behind it was a statue in the likes of the owl.

"I was looking at that too," she said, "do you think that's the thing you need for the Song of Soaring?"

"I would assume...it could be useful," I stated, noting its engraving which read: 'Leave the mark of the hero's blade', "...stand back."

Anna moved back and I slashed the statue with my sword, a brief light shining before the statue changed from that of an owl with curled up

wings to that of one spreading them out.

"How did-?" Anna started.

Yet another thing I have to add to my list of 'not to question'. Turning back to the drawing, however, it was plainly obvious what it was I needed

to do. With a brief sigh I slipped on the Deku mask and then hopped onto the painting, taking out the deku pipes and playing the 'Sonata of

Awakening'. No sooner had I played the last note had the ground began to shake under us, the water heaving up in waves. Quickly I returned to

my Hylian form and Anna clung to me, both of us unsure as to what I had done before we saw the large building that appeared to be made of a

stump that rivaled the Kharlan tree sprung up from the water.

"...We're going in there?" she pointed, watching the water slide off of it like slime.

I nodded.

"...I'm using the fairy mask then," she stated, slipping it on.

Through the use of a deku flower I too made my way over there and into the temple. As I had suspected, a lot of it required me to maintain that

form in order to pass through it. After several hours of burning webs, crawling in and out of vegetation, dodging maniacal turtles and on one

occurrence, battling a giant frog, we finally found ourselves before the boss' lair.

"Anna, I want you to wait out here," I told her, turning away from the large door.

"What? Why?" she scoffed, 'dingling' a bit.

"There is most likely a large creature in here, I do not want you to get hurt," I stated simply, trying not to let my mind drift back the occasions

where she indeed was hurt...even by my own blade.

"I'll stay like this the whole time!" she protested. "I won't get hurt!"

"Anna, I'm not going to risk-"

"If you won't take me then I'm just gonna follow you on my own," she huffed.

"...Heh...heh heh," I smiled a bit, turning my head in an attempt to hide it.

"WOAH, did you just laugh?!" she dingled, startled. "What did I say-?!"

"Nothing, it's just...Lloyd said that exact same thing," I chuckled.

"...Oh..." her wings drooped.

"Lloyd? Who's 'Lloyd'?" Tatl dingled. "I think you mentioned him before..."

"At any rate, I'm going inside," I stated, turning toward the door, "...if you must come than please stay out of the way."

"Hmph, as you wish your highness," Anna made a sound I believe was called a 'raspberry'.

I smirked a bit and entered the wide sliding door, hearing the expected slamming of it behind me as something began to stir in the large empty

chamber. Judging on the structure...I looked up-

Just in time to see a large humanoid masked monster land in front of me, hooting and chanting some strange language.

"Holy cr-!" Anna cried. "That thing's bigger than a dragon!"

"Roughly the same size, to put it more accurately," I stated, drawing the new bow I had found in the temple, "I assume its weak point is the

throat?"

"Gimme a second," Tatl zoomed around it, the creature jerking around in an attempt to snatch her before she returned, "actually, he's vulnerable

all over, but I'd watch out for his sword, he looks f-"

Anna screamed as I just barely managed to block the blade and was pushed back toward the wall. Lovely, he was fast. I took off at a run as it

made swipes for me, dodging and rolling when necessary. It was rather difficult, actually, seeing as I could not get in time enough to make a

counter-attack- A deku flower? My eyes didn't deceive me, a yellow deku flower lay in the middle of the room-

Heh.

I made a dash for it and quickly transformed, digging into the flower just as it made another swipe for me. From inside the flower I saw it bend

over and look down at it, as if confused.

Then I ejected from it at significant force and managed to give it a large wound across the torso, causing it to start howling in pain. I landed

quickly and then turned back, setting an arrow and shooting it into its chest while it shouted from its previous wound. This, I think, only managed

to agitate it seeing as it chanted and millions of insects began swarming at me from apparently nowhere. Lovely, I hated it when dangerous foes

had back-up. Apparently it wasn't enough to be giant and deadly, they need to have little minions as well. Like the Kagtach and the Audiloca, who

just needed their mini-mes to fight with them. I paid them no mind, however, other than running. If I killed their leader they would disappear, it

was how thing seemed to work. That and it appeared to be a type of summoning: if the summoner disappears, what they summoned does as

well. The second I got another opening I shot another arrow into the heart, running up as fast as I could to finish it off with my blade as it

staggered onto its knees.

"HYAH!"

The insects disappeared as it gave a blood-curling shriek, twisting a writhing before collapsing onto the floor and dissolving in a manner much like

that of the other creatures I had fought. It left behind a blue light, a mask, and a heart container- some type of healing crystal, as I had come to

believe seeing as I always felt moderately more healthy after picking one up.

"Wow!" Anna cried, turning back into a Kokiri. "That was awesome!!!"

"I gotta admit, you weren't bad," Tatl dingled.

"Not my first fight," I stated with a smirk, "now let's be going."

I walked over to the mask and picked it up, the same mask the creature had been wearing. If something like that had been using it, I most

certainly did not wish to...but I should take it with me just in case, to make sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands.

"Trippy light," Anna blinked, looking down at it, "this is what we use to get out, right?"

I nodded and the both of us entered, expecting to turn out somewhere else in the temple- most likely where the princess was. However, we

found ourselves instead standing on a platform in a place that appeared to be constructed of misty clouds.

"W- What is this?!" Anna cried, looking around with a gasp.

"..."

I looked around, somewhat unsettled at the strange surroundings. This place was not something I had seen before, and yet-

"Guh-!"

I clutched my left hand, gritting my teeth as I forced my right hand off of it to look at the back of the afore-mentioned one. I snarled at the Triforce

as it shone brightly on my hand, almost burning me with its intensity. The damn thing, it had to act up right now- unless...

Anna and I almost jumped as a low, haunting sound echoed through the white abyss, slow and sad, yet...surprisingly gentle, like the call of a

whale. A silhoutte of a large- thing, appeared, and Tatl hovered about slowly.

"...'Thank...you'?" she said, tilting to the side a bit.

"For what?" Anna blinked.

"It's saying something," she said with a dingle, "...'to gather all of us when we are needed...play this'."

The haunting call began to sing, again like a whale: deep, mysterious, spine-tingling and yet comforting. The notes echoed about us, seeming to

vibrate in our very bones. The Triforce began to sting my hand with renewed vigor before I snarled and took out the ocarina, repeating the notes.

Once I had done so the notes echoed much like the creatures had-

And then everything disappeared again.

"Our friend needs us..." Tatl's voice said as it all faded away.

The next second we were once again in the hollow of a tree, this time looking in front of us at a web of tighty-knitted vines.

"W- What was that?" Anna asked, shook up by the apparition.

"I-..."

Something behind the vines was moving...

**n.n Seven pages in one go! Woot! I can write when I set my mind to it...and I had fun. n.n That's the good part! It's never okay to write a lot **

**i****f you're not having fun doing it, nay?**

**Cheresea: Yup. n.n**

**Genis: I think that's just an excuse for her slow updates.**

**Lloyd: Well-**

**Me: (Smacks both of them) Review if you want! n.n**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello! :D n.n Someone made me a piccie of Deku-Kratos, (link on my profile) and it was cutie so I wrote this right away! n.n **

**Lloyd: Freakyanimegal owns nothing.**

**Cheresea: I wanna see this pic…(sneaks off)**

**Genis: Me too!**

**Lloyd: H- Hey! I want to see too! (Runs off)**

**Me: Sigh…-_-' **

"W- What is that-?" Anna stammered a bit, backing up behind me.

I stepped forward and looked skeptically at the vines, attempting to see what was moving behind them. The vegetation was rather thick; I doubted anything could get through it if it lacked any type of claws or sharp teeth. Tatl hovered around it and then dingled.

"Kratos-" she started.

"Anna, stand back," I said, preparing to slice through the vines.

I hacked through the plants, not sure what to expect. What we found was a small deku-girl, much like the type Anna could turn into aside from this one had a long braid of pink flowers and a more…dainty, look to it.

"Oh?" she squeaked, bringing her 'hand' to her snout. "Who might you two be?"

"I am Kratos, this is Anna and Tatl," I said, gesturing to both of them, "I assume I'm correct in thinking that you are the Deku princess?"

"Why, yes!" she nodded, taking my hand. "Pleasure to meet you! By any chance, did that nice monkey send the three of you in after me?"

"Yeah," Anna nodded, staring a bit, "how'd you know?"

"Well, you see, both of you smell rather like monkey," she mused, tilting her head to the side.

Anna, Tatl and I shared a moment of silence.

"Oh…" Anna said simply, snickering a bit.

"So he's all right, then?" the Deku Princess asked, looking up at us. "Oh thank goodness. I was afraid that when he came back without me my father would think he'd kidnapped me! He tends to be so rash, you know, I was worried he'd go so far as to punish the poor Mr. Monkey! Boo hoo hoo!"

We shared another long moment of silence and awkward glances as the Deku cried and then abruptly turned to look up at all of us. Now, Deku-expressions were not my forte, but I knew enough to tell that she was dawning on the realization.

"Don't tell me…" she trailed.

"Yeah," Anna smiled nervously, rubbing the back of her neck as Lloyd does.

"Are you serious?!"

The three of us jumped back a bit as the Deku-girl began to throw a tantrum, jumping around and blurting out strange squeaks and growls while she bounced around.

"That's it! That's IT! Take me out! Take me back home to my father!" she cried. "I've got to stop him from hurting Mr. Monkey! You! Don't you have something you can carry me in!?"

"All we have is a bottle…" Anna trailed, taking out the object, "I don't think you can fit in there-"

Then to all of our surprises the little being jumped right into the glass.

I wasn't sure I was more shocked she did that, or that she fit.

"H- Hurry! I can be h- here for a little, so go! GO!!"

"…" I shook my head, turning to the exit.

I had seen some things in my life- er, lives- but this was getting more and more ridiculous the more I went on. Well, there was nothing left to do but head back to the Deku Palace. At the gates Anna and I transformed when we entered the place and we headed straight for the throne room.

"H- Here!" she squeaked from the bottle. "Right in front of him!"

I would've shrugged had I had shoulders of any kind, but I merely complied. The bouncing of the soldiers and ranting of the king came to an abrupt halt when the princess made her appearance before the court.

"W- What? My daughter! My darling Princes has come back to me!" he cried.

"Faaaattheerrr…." she growled, beginning to shake as she made that strange growling sound again.

Then she jumped right from the pedestal onto her father, slamming him to the ground.

"ANOTHER HASTY DECISION, FATHER!"

With that she began to jump up and down on the king's stomach, yelling at him the entire time.

"Did it occur to you ONCE that maybe he was telling the truth!? Did you?! The monkey is my FRIEND, father! How dare you?! How dare you how dare you how DARE you?!"

"…" I blinked.

"That's not something you see every day," Anna snickered.

"AND YOU!" the Princess roared, turning toward the court.

They simultaneously shivered.

"What are you standing around for!? RELEASE THAT MONKEY AT ONCE!!!"

The servants jumped and instantly waddled off toward the monkey's pen while we watched, the Princess continuing to shout at her father between snapping at the workers to be gentle with her monkey friend. Once all had settled she went up to the monkey and bowed her head.

"I am so sorry, Mr. Monkey! Father can be so brash when he's worried about me…"

"It's all right, Princess," the monkey smiled, "but I assume since that you are here the temple has been cleared of the evil?"

"Why yes! This is Kratos; he killed the monster and saved me as well!"

"Did he now?" he turned to me, smiling. "Thank you very much. Not only did you come to save me, but you rescued her just as I requested. I am very, truly grateful."

He bowed his head at me and I smiled a bit- as much as Deku can, at any rate.

"That reminds me, the butler made something for you," the Princes told me, "you can get it from the shrine to the left of the palace. Please accept it with our gratitude."

"Sweet, a gift!" Tatl dingled. "I wonder what it is!"

"I hope it's not something like plant food," Anna joked, dingling a bit herself.

I shook my head before thanking the Princess and heading out of the palace, leaving Anna to follow me and ask what it was she had said wrong. The shrine was not that hard to find, especially since the water was no longer that putrid purple color and thus no longer capable of burning us at the touch. Inside the shrine it appeared to be little more than a dark cave…aside from the tunnel behind it, the torches, and the fact the butler was waiting for us.

"Welcome," he gave a little bow, "young hero, the princess wishes that our tribe grant you a gift as a result of your bravery."

"Well, that's nice of them-" Anna started.

"But, as it is a rather precious treasure…you must pass one more test, I'm afraid."

I'm shocked.

"Figures," Tatl dingled in a huff.

"So what does he have to do?" Anna asked.

"Simple, you must catch me," the butler smiled.

…What?

"Hey wait-" Tatl started.

Before we could do anything, the deku had taken to the air with a propeller flower and a lantern, zooming off backwards down the tunnel.

Oh great, it's Dante all over again.

If there is a single redead in this 'test' I swear I am going to reduce half of the Deku population to shredded salad greens if I make it out alive. I- wait, I had to run…like this? I was never going to catch him with these stubby legs! I waddled in as fast as I could and took note of the deku flowers sprouting at frequent intervals. Oh thank Farore, for a moment I thought I was going to have to actually run-

Thank Farore? Feh, next I'll be saying 'Thank Martel'; and the woman was my friend for mana's sake. Though yes, technically she is now 'mana' but-

"Kratos! Hurry up, you're losing him!" Tatl dingled.

Right. Reminiscing later.

At any rate, I managed to catch the sucker between various combinations of waddling, whirling, 'flying' and dodging to find him hovering by a large chest. Again, this is just like what happened with Dante at the graveyard. Well…at least there were no redeads.

"Great job!" a voice squeakd.

"Woah- the princess?! When did she get here?!" Anna dingled.

Sure enough, the Deku princess was bouncing up and down at the sight of us, obviously thrilled.

"What do you mean? I wanted to see if you made it," she tilted her head to the side.

"No, I mean how did you beat us here?" Anna dimmed.

"Oh, I took the back entrance, it's right by my throne."

There was a very long silence as she gestured toward the tunnel off behind her, where I could quite obviously hear the king going on about something or another and the monkey laughing. Now, fate usually has the habit of smacking me in the face whenever possible, but was this kind of thing really so necessary?

"What the HELL-!?" Tatl began.

"Sshhhh!" Anna said, whacking her.

"Ow!"

"Anyway, the princess will now present you with your gift," the butler stated.

"Oh! Right!" she chirped, waddling over to the chest. "Here you go! Thank you so much!"

I held out my little wooden hands and watched her place something yellow on it- …a mask, a mask that looked like a pig. …Strangely, I thought somehow that this all would be much more rewarding in some manner.

"This mask is a real treasure," the princess smiled, "with it you can smell even the faintest smells REALLY well! I know it doesn't sound TOO helpful, but sometimes when you can't find things any other way…"

"Thank you," I nodded, taking the mask, "I appreciate it."

She was right, after all. The sense of smell was a very powerful thing when harnessed and actually capable. Humanoid's sense of smell was severely lacking, whereas Noishe could track someone for miles after only getting a whiff from a sock or some other article. Speaking of Noishe…I wonder if that protozoan is doing all right. I hadn't seen Noishe since the skull-kid took her and ran off…

"By the way…um…"

I snapped back to reality to notice the princess was looking at me intently.

"What is it?" I asked.

"O- Oh…nothing…" she trailed.

She looked at me a moment more before bursting out in tears and running off, blubbering out an apology as she did so. Needless to say, we were all rather shocked and I was concerned I had done something to upset her when her butler spoke up.

"Sorry about that, you see….you look quite like my son," he stated, "he disappeared several weeks ago and I'm afraid the princess had a bit of a crush on him."

"Your son?" Anna asked.

"Yes, he said he wanted to see the world and took off…" he sighed, "I haven't seen him since."

"…Wait, that little tree we saw-" Tatl started.

"Thank you for your time, farewell," I said hurriedly, turning to leave.

"W- Wait! Don't ignore me!" she scoffed, zooming after me.

Once we had gotten far enough away Anna interrupted Tatl's nagging.

"That little tree we saw when we were coming here…didn't it look like a Deku?" Anna asked.

"I-! …Wait, you're right," Tatl dingled, "but…but wait, you don't think that maybe it has anything to do with Kratos' mask, do you? I mean, the same place he turned into that and that guy said he looked like…."

I slid off the mask as we continued on a ways past the last Deku guards, looking down at the hollow wooden object in my hands. It did look incredibly life-like…and it did look a lot like that shriveled little 'tree' we saw coming here. This mask…did the skull-kid somehow make this from that Deku? I was using its remains, in a way, wasn't I then?

"…" I stopped, some of my now-blond bangs sliding in my face.

"Kratos?" Anna asked, back in her Kokiri-form. "Are you all right?"

"..It's like with the exspheres, isn't it?" I asked simply.

"What?" she asked again, though I didn't turn to look at her.

"This mask is being used by me but it was made from someone else, was it not?" I frowned. "So this is just like with the exspheres back on Sylvarant and Tethe'alla."

"I…I guess it kind of is," Anna sighed, "…but remember what you told Lloyd?"

"Hm?" I asked, turning to look at her.

She smiled. Though I had undergone a few more changes than she had, she still hard her brown eyes. Her hair was slowly changing back to that green tone she had when 'Saria' but her eyes were still the same. My hair had changed to gold and my eyes to blue since before leaving Hyrule (frankly my hairstyle was the only thing exactly like my old self at this point), but she at least still had those warm brown eyes.

"You told him that if it happened to you, you'd want to be useful," she smiled a bit sadly, "and I did. I wanted to be useful, for sure, and you said you'd want to too. I know it's kinda hard but…"

"Hard? Anna, you are someone who went through it- wait, how did you know about that?"

"About what?" she blinked.

"About what Lloyd said," I pressed.

"He told me about it when he visited last time," she said with a laugh, "I remembered it a little bit from when I was in his exsphere, but it's all a bit blurry now…"

"Ah," I said simply.

"What the HELL are you guys talking about?!" Tatl cried.

"Oh, she's still here," Anna sighed, rubbing the back of her neck, "sorry, I forgot…"

"Why is it you guys always start talking about things I don't understand…?" she moped, drooping a bit.

"Sorry," Anna said again, smiling nervously.

"Well-…"

"Kratos, what's wrong?"

I looked up at the sky, noting the moon was significantly closer than it had been the last time I'd bothered to looked up toward the sky. What day was it?

"Tatl-"

"It's the afternoon of the second day," she said, looking up, "we've got one more day."

"We've seriously gone without sleep for the past thirty-six hours?!" Anna gasped, going wide-eyed. "Oh my g-! How come I haven't passed out yet?!"

"Adrenaline, we've been busy," I said with a sigh, "though it would probably be a good idea to get some rest somewhere. We can go back to the first day tomorrow."

"But where?" Anna asked. "The town's a ways away and I don't think- y'know, I did see this little house thing when we were on the boat…"

"I doubt there'd be an inn in the middle of-"

"Well, it's probably not an inn, but can we check it out anyway?" she grinned.

"…I thought you said you wanted to rest," I sighed in exasperation.

"Well, yes, but…" she frowned, "oh fine. Let's rest somewhere…THEN can we check it out tomorrow?"

I sighed again, bringing a hand to my head.

"Fine, tomorrow," I said.

"Sweet! Now…how do we get back to town?" she asked.

I thought a minute before sliding out the ocarina, remembering what the large bird had said about those statues of him- warping. Ah…finally, he'd proven to be somewhat helpful.

"Hold on to me, Anna," I stated.

"Sure!" she grinned, grabbing my arm.

"…"

"What?"

"Nothing."

* * *

We arrived back in Clock Town shortly after and we managed to secure the room that apparently had my name on the reservation at the inn. It was getting dark when we entered the 'knife chamber' as it's called, and Anna immediately plopped down flat on one of the beds.

"Ah…I'm so tired…" she yawned loudly, "it feels so comfortable right now…"

"I'm a bit exhausted as well," I stated, looking out the window, "perhaps we should-"

There was a loud snore from Anna.

"…"

"Wow, she falls asleep fast!" Tatl laughed.

Well, that was Anna for you. I felt a small smile work its way into my lips as I walked over to her bedside and pulled the covers over her, seeing she had forgotten to do so in her exhaustion. She snuggled into the warmth like a child- much like Lloyd did- and I suppressed a chuckle before giving her a light kiss on the cheek.

"Good night, Anna," I whispered softly.

With that I walked back toward the window, taking one last look at the darkening sky and the stars appearing among the monstrous moon. I was a bit tired myself-

"Ugh-!"

"Kratos-? What's wrong-?" Tatl asked.

I clutched my left hand and growled, attempting to smothering the light coming from.

The Triforce was acting up again…

**YAY! This one only took me two sittings! n.n So proud of myself right now…**

**Cheresea: Cool. Now what about 'Fallen Hero'?**

**Me:…Um-**

**Lloyd: And 'Time Twisting'?**

**Genis: What about the other Zelda-related one? 'Twilight Reckoning'?**

**Me: I HATE you ALL! T.T (Crawls into a corner)**

**All three: (Shrug) Review! :D **


	8. Chapter 8

**YAY NEXT CHAP! :D**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. **

**NOTE TO RELIGION0: Sorry it's late! I had a heck of a busy weekend and Friday was NOT a good day for me…-_-'**

"SPPPPPIIIIIDDEEEERRRRSSSSSS!"

I sighed as Anna ran past me at roughly the speed of light, flailing her arms over her head in an almost comical manner. And she had been so eager to get in here and 'poke around', that building in the swamp.

"Anna-"

"You know how I feel about spiders!" she snapped, her face flushing with that same expression Lloyd always used. "I don't-…I don't like spiders."

"Anna, I know," I sighed, "So perhaps we should just leave-?"

"Leave? Pssh, no way!" she scoffed, taking out her 'fairy' mask. "I'll just hide in your hat!"

"Anna, why do I have to carry you through here when you're the one that wants to see it?"

In the end, however, I gave in. She hid in my hat as we ventured further into the strange building and I had to tell her to stay in the hat when he came across its…occupant. A half-man, half-skulltulla was hanging from the ceiling, much like the ones that had been cursed in Kakiriko. As such, this man also asked to be freed from his curse in the same manner: destroying skulltullas. However, it appeared that all the ones that cursed him were in this building.

So it was really no surprise I ended up traversing the entire complex to fulfill his request. It took a good few hours (in which Anna refused to come out of my hat and Tatl zoomed around giving me rather useless advice) before we could come to the entrance, and I was very tired of the whole thing once we arrived.

"You saved me!" a now-human being said to us, Anna slipping out of my hat. "Thank you, thank you! Please, allow me to show my appreciation-"

"That's okay, really," Anna dingled, "We're just happy you're back to normal-"

"I insist! Please, take this mask!"

Mask?

"Hey…that kinda looks like the Shieka symbol, doesn't it?" Anna asked, hovering above it as it ended up in my hands.

It did indeed bear that symbol, a reddish mask that consisted of a large eye with an insignia of sorts marked upon it. Tatl zoomed over it herself, humming in a bit as one does when musing something interesting.

"Wow! This mask can let you read minds!" she exclaimed.

"Really? Neat!" Anna dingled.

"This is very valuable…are you certain you wish to give it-?" I began.

I didn't get a chance to finish my sentence, seeing as the world began to shake violently beneath my feet. Anna and Tatl yelped and I almost lost my balance, feeling my elfish ears jerk up in surprise.

It was the third day…the end of the third day.

"Oh crap! We'd better go, now!" Tatl dingled.

I didn't need to be told twice. I whipped out the ocarina and played the song of time, the world fading to white around me as that strange, twisting sensation settled in my gut. When it had cleared we found ourselves once again before the clock tower, the world as it was when we first saw it, again. There was a flash followed by a sigh as Anna removed the fairy mask, stuffing it in her pack.

"Y'know…I get really sick of that," she muttered.

"The time-traveling?" Tatl asked.

"No, I mean, every time we help someone and go back…it just undoes itself!" she sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "It's like…we did it for nothing…"

"Not so much 'nothing'," I said, showing her the mask, "We did gain this...its abilities may be able to help us stop the moon from falling."

"Well…yeah, I guess, so we will save everyone," she frowned a bit, but nodded, "but I…I mean, so we save everyone's lives…their lives are all still ruined! It just…it just makes me sad…"

I smiled slightly, though I didn't let her see. It was so like Anna to be bothered by such things, though I did feel…badly, that she had to be bothered by it in the first place…

"The next giant should be in the mountains, correct?" I asked, looking up at Tatl.

"That's what Tael said," she bobbed, "That's Snowhead, the Gorons live there."

"Gorons? Like Darunia?" Anna blinked. "So they have those here too…"

"It nearly feels like the two-worlds complex again," I sighed a bit, "only this time no mana is involved."

"Huh?" Tatl dingled.

"Let's get a move on," I said, heading for the exit to Snowhead, "I don't want to waste three days again."

"Feh, aren't they all wasted? Nothing we do ever stays…" Anna muttered.

"…" I looked at her.

"W- What?" she stammered a bit, flushing. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I had thought you would be the last one to say helping people is wasting time," I said.

She flinched, staring at me. Then after a moment she threw her head back and laughed, clapping her hands as that familiar grin split her face.

"Touche! You're right, you're right!" she laughed. "Thanks, Kratos! I needed that."

She smiled and gave me a light kiss on the cheek, prancing toward the exit with renewed vigor. I blinked once and ignored Tatl's giggles before following after her, heading for the exit.

Of course, you'd think by the name I would have expected what we found when we arrived.

Snow, ice, more snow, and more ice. And here I was wearing a dr- 'tunic', it figured as much. Anna shivered a bit, in her fairy form because of the area we had been passing through to get here, which was filled with dodongos, subsequently. Apparently they went from being dark, lava-loving creatures to ones that wandered in circles in the snow in broad daylight for seemingly hours on end. I will never attempt to understand all of this, but then….I didn't quite ever understand penguinists either. Before I knew it, both of them were huddled under my hat, snuggling the warmth of my hair as I was left to my own devices. With a sigh, I figured I'd might as well get looking. Where I should start, however, was a bit of a mystery-

That is, until I heard the crying.

"Wait, what's that?" Anna asked, peeking out of my hat.

"It sounds like someone's crying," Tatl said, "How sad…"

"Find out where it's coming from, Kratos!" Anna said.

"Because I have to go find this complete stranger and go out of my way to make everything happy for them, correct?" I sighed.

"Yep! Get moving!" Anna dingled cheerfully.

Well, every time we ended up helping a stranger it ended up being something to benefit us in the end at any rate. That, and we had no other clues, so off we went. What we found was a settlement comprising of large, dome-like buildings, and several Gorons were huddled around, shivering violently from the cold while at the same time trying to plug their ears.

"Oooh! A human, goro?" one looked down at me.

"Not e- exactly," I stammered, the cold taking its toll on my small, non-angelic body, "W- What's going on in th- there?"

"The elder's son, goro! He's crying because the elder has gone missing, goro!"

Apparently, the Goron here had a dialect of sorts that differed from the ones in Hyrule being that they said 'goro' at the ened of almost every sentence.

"The elder gone missing, goro, and then the Great Darmani died, goro!" the other Goron wailed.

"And the blizzard! It won't stop, goro!" the first wailed in response.

"The monster at Snowhead Temple, goro! It killed Darmani when he tried to destroy it and end the blizzard!"

To summise: The crying is the elder's son, the elder has gone missing, the cause of the snow was a monster at the Snowhead Temple that killed their best warrior. Now, judging on the past experiences, I would need some kind of song…

"If only we knew his lullaby, goro!" one cried. "The lullaby the elder always sang to his son!"

"But only the elder knows it, goro! The elder and Darmani!"

Darmani being dead, I assume I have to find the elder and bring him back, or at least get the lullaby from him.

"The lullaby's probably the song, huh?" Anna asked from under my hat.

"Most likely," I shivered, "All right, thanks for your- t- time-"

I sneezed and then rubbed my nose, sincerely wishing I still had my immunity to the cold.

We went to leave the village, but we didn't make it far before…well, what else? The owl showed up again. It let out a few loud hoots and I sighed deeply, in no mood to deal with his ramblings while I was slowly freezing to death.

"Hoo! Follow me! I'll lead you to something vital to your mission here!" it said, flapping its wings.

"Could you, just, like…pick him up and fly us there?" Anna asked, slipping out of my hat again. "It would save us so much time and effort…"

"Hoo, no! This treasure must be earned! Earned through-"

"My courage?" I stated blandly.

"Exactly, hoo!"

Somehow I'm not surprised.

So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I ended up chasing the owl through the crevices of the ice, dodging monsters while trying to will my short legs to keep up with the gargantuan bird. I managed well enough, at least, until we came to the edge of the cliff. I skidded to stop, the snow almost sliding me right off as the owl kept flying. Splendid, how was I supposed to-?

Then I noticed the feathers.

A brown feather was suspended In seemingly thin-air a few feet before me, another feather after that a few more feet, and so in. There was a trail of feathers simply set in the air… Or was it that it wasn't really air? Something was holding the feathers up, so…

"Well, here goes nothing," I sighed, using a quote I had taken from Anna.

"Huh? What're you-?" she poked out of my hat just in time to swear when I jumped off the cliff's side. "Kratos-! Have you lost it-?! Huh?"

I landed, whatever the feather was on, it was solid, and it could support me very well.

"Oh ho! Neat!" Tatl dingled, having popped out to see what was going on as well.

So it was I took it that the rest of the trail was passable in the same manner. At the end of the trail I did not find the owl (luckily) but a chest that had been frozen in snow…and something rather familiar looking.

"Hey, wait a minute, isn't that that magic-lens thing?" Anna asked.

"The eye-of-truth," I corrected, though it did rather remind me of a magic lense.

I tilted my head to the side, examining the object. I thought I had left it back in the forest… Why was it here as well? Though, I guess it is not that much of a stretch to believe it so, when doubles of all the people in Hyrule were walking around- most of them, at any rate. Hm…well, we would need this, I assumed. Annoying as the owl was, he did prove helpful at times; much like Navi when I think about it.

"All right, next step…find the elder," I said, looking around, "Now, how is it I do that-"

"Kratos! Look out-!"

I instinctively turned around with my sword, backing up a second only to find that she hadn't been trying to warn me of an attack, but to the ice I had just stumbled backwards onto. The next thing I knew I had slipped and slammed onto my back, sliding down the slope of the mountain we had been on and then slamming into a wall of ice, the snow that had been covering it falling on me in turn.

Further proof there is a god. I had already concluded that there was one, and its favorite past time was either humiliating me or simply making everything go dreadfully wrong.

"Kratos, are you okay!?" I heard Tatl cry.

"Kratos!"

I tried to work my way out of the snow and felt a hand grab mine, I looked up and saw Anna in her humanoid form pulling me out, worry etched in her expression.

"Kratos, are you okay?" she asked, brushing some snow off me. "You didn't get hurt too bad, did you?"

"I- I'm f- fine-" I sneezed, the snow numbing my flesh, "I- I just-"

"Hey! Kratos, check this out!" Tatl said, zooming by the wall of ice.

"Not right now, Tatl!" Anna said. "Kratos is gonna get 'nomonia' or something-!"

"You found the elder!"

We both stopped.

"What?" Anna asked.

We turned toward the wall of ice, finding what appeared to be an aged Goron frozen solid inside of it. Oh, splendid, we were going to get that song for sure now.

"Is he…dead?" Anna asked, looking him up and down.

"No, he's alive," Tatl reported, "Y'know, you could probably melt this with hot-spring water-"

I interrupted her when I sneezed loudly.

"Well, that's great, but I doubt there are any around here," Anna glared, "It would be great if there were, Kratos is-"

"But there is! It's at the top of that cliff thing in that valley area!"

"W- What?! Okay, let's get there-"

I sneezed again, every inch of my body shivering as if Celsius was tearing me apart with the tips of her nails. Anna said something, though I couldn't quite make it out. The world was getting very…blurry, distant- No. No, I couldn't lose strength here-

I blacked out.

* * *

"…os…"

This sensation…

"Kr…os…?"

So foreign, what was it? It was…

Warmth.

My eyes flitted open and I found myself lying in water, steaming water. A hot-spring? That had to be it…how did I get here? And-…was I…glowing? I managed to look over to the side, spotting the grosammer wings. Why was I in the fairy form? I didn't put on the mask-

"Kratos! You're awake!"

I saw a very large, but still very Anna, face smile down at me, obviously relieved.

"Oh thank Martel!" she said, sighing. "You gave me a heart-attack!"

I realized I was laying in hot water that was flowing into her hands, that she was holding me up in the fluid. The area didn't look familiar…a stone cave of some sort, with a large monument of some kind off to the side-

"Yeah, he's all right!" she chirped, looking up.

I looked up and saw no one there, confused. Was I still delirious? What was going on?

"Oh…yeah, when you passed out, I put the fairy mask on you so I could carry you," Anna said, looking down at me, "Then Tatl and I found the hot-spring, and this guy here unsealed it-…oh yeah, you can't see him, can you?"

"…" I slowly shook my head, still too weak to do much more.

"I used that magic-lens thing," she said, "There's a ghost Goron guy here… It's that Darmani guy. He helped me move the block to let the water out."

"I was a bit surprised," I heard Tatl say, "Apparently ghosts can move things if they really try."

I looked to my side and saw Tatl sitting on Anna's thumb, her legs crossed and her head tilted slightly as she looked at me.

"You feeling better?" she asked. "Anna was freaking out!"

"Shut up! So were you!" Anna snapped down at her.

I grimaced. Couldn't they stop being so loud? My head was throbbing…

"Oh," Anna must've noticed, because she whispered next, "Sorry, angel-cake…"

She had saved me. Saved my life after I had taken hers…irony was all to abundant in my life- lives. Briefly I wondered if I had been any before 'Kratos', before everything was thrown out of the order Origin had told me about. I suppose if I couldn't remember it there was no point in fretting, but it was a tad unnerving to think about.

"…It's…all right," I groaned, managing to sit up, "I'm fine now."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes, I…am truly sorry for putting you through that, did you get very cold?" I frowned, looking up at her.

"A little, but I wasn't out there as long as you were," she smiled weakly, "So don't worry about it, okay? We're all fine now."

"What, don't I get any thanks?" Tatl asked from my side, putting her hands on her hips. "I led her here and pointed out to use the Eye of Truth! Why does she keep calling it a 'Magic Lens' by the way?"

"I'm sorry, thank you, Tatl," I said, deciding to ignore her question…as I tended to do.

"Well, okay then…do you want to turn back now?" Anna asked. "Let me know so I can put you on the ground."

I nodded briefly and she hesitantly set me on the stone, allowing me to switch back to my 'normal' form. I sighed in relief as I handed her the mask, the hot vapor of the water significantly improving my status. With a brief shake of my head I looked toward the direction Anna had been looking when she was talking to this 'ghost', seeing…well, nothing. Anna handed me the Eye of Truth and I activated it, flinching a bit when I spotted the Goron ghost hovering before us.

"Looks like Darunia, doesn't he?" Anna whispered to me.

I nodded as the ghost examined me, as if analyzing me. After a moment he spoke, still eying me skeptically.

"I am Darmani," he said, "I am- or was- the Hero of the Goron Tribe. Anna and Tatl have told me that you seek to destroy Goht?"

"Goht?" I frowned.

"The monster of Snowhead," he said, "I…I tried to defeat him, to save my people, but…alas, I was defeated. Now…now my people are doomed…"

"No they're not! We'll stop the storm!" Anna said.

"You're just children-"

"You don't know Kratos," she smirked, "Trust me, he can handle pretty much anything."

The Goron didn't seem to believe us. He merely sighed and looked away, he looked very…depressed. I could relate, actually, he had the air of one who had let down the ones he cared for, who had failed, I knew the feeling-

The Song of Healing.

I don't know why that came to me, but I took out the ocarina and played the tune. The ghost seemed unsettled at first, then relaxed, as if remembering something very dear to him. After a moment he let out a loud sigh and smiled, a peaceful expression on his face.

"Thank you…" he smiled, "I can finally be at peace now…"

"What-? Wait-!" Anna started.

He disappeared, and all that was left was the orange mask that fell into my hands as Anna and Tatl watched on with teary eyes.

"If you can, please…save my people…"

"…"

My grip tightened on the mask, another 'exsphere' to add to my use.

"I will," I stated.

I owed existence that much.

**I know it was a bit of a sad ending, for that I apologize, but it felt like the right place to do it. (shrug) So to make you feel better, try imagining Regal in a tutu. You'll either laugh or go into cardiac arrest, so either way you won't be depressed anymore.**

**Lloyd: Um…Review?**


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay then, hopefully we'll finish out the Goron arc in this chapter…seeing as honestly, I don't like it too much n.n; Should've had it up faster, I know, seeing as how I got TWO pics for this since last time and all, but being Christmas and all…. Y'know how that goes, right? XD Sorry…hope you like! **

**Disclaimer: Still own nothing.**

**Enjoy n.n**

Drums were not something I had played before, but then, I suppose I had never been able to curl into a ball and roll around either. It was something that came along with the Goron shape, the instinct. The cries of the elder's son had echoed through the entire city when we had come across it, and it soon became apparent that something had to be done about it. We had managed to find the elder and he relayed- of course- a song…but only part of one. Not surprisingly, it was a lullaby, though Anna was quite relieved. So there I was, in Goron shape, playing the drums to a screaming infant of the tribe. The baby relayed the other part of the song to us, and soon was fast asleep…as was every other Goron in the building.

"Wow! That knocked'em all out!" Tatl dingled, zooming out from under my hat.

"Yeah, geez, wish that worked for all species.." Anna muttered.

I slid the mask off my face, sighing a bit as I returned to my much smaller form.

"This is tiring," I said, "I don't really like all of them believing me to be their hero…"

It was very unnerving when we first came across the village, me using Darmani's form, they all assumed me to be their hero. At first I attempted to explain I wasn't who they believed me to be, but every time I barely got a word out before they panicked and pleaded with me to stop the Goron child from crying. By then I'd given up and went in search of the elder, and now here we were… How a Goron lullaby would help us get into the temple, I wasn't quite sure, but I was sure it would do the job…

"Y'know, that elder looks a bit old to have a kid, wouldn't you say?" Tatl mused out of nowhere.

"Yeah, kinda…come to think of it, have we ever even seen a female Goron?" Anna said, dingling loudly as her wings flapped.

"…" I frowned.

No, I don't believe we had seen a female Goron…

"Okay, now I'm curious!" Anna said.

There was a flash of light as she returned to Kokiri form, attempting to snatch the mask from me. I pulled back, of course, startled at her actions.2

"A- Anna! What are you doing?!" I cried, put off.

"What else?! I'm going to see what a chick Goron looks like!" she said, putting her hands on her hips. "Come on, hand it over! Please?"

"Will that even work?" Tatl asked, humming a bit.

"When I put on the Deku mask I was a girl Deku," Anna pointed out, "So…I dunno, it'd turn me into a female version of Darmani? Either way, we'll see what a girl looks like."

"Maybe they asexually reproduce…?" Tatl mused.

Anna and I merely stared at her.

"W- What?! It's a possibility!" she cried, her yellow aura tinted pink with embarrassment.

"She has a point…" I muttered under my breath.

We all fell silent, staring at the rather disturbing mask I held in my hands.

"…On second thought, I don't want to try it," Anna grimaced a bit, "Let's just head for the snow temple."

"I concur," I said, heading for the door as she shifted back to fairy form and flew after me.

The rumors that Snowhead Temple was the source of the storm appeared to be quite true. We barely came into sight of the place when violent gusts of snow nearly blew us right off the side of the bridge. Anna and Tatl both yelped and zoomed under my hat in an attempt to both keep warm and stop themselves from falling and I had no choice but to shift into Goron form, which was heavy enough to keep me from falling off the side of the bridge myself. Something wasn't right here…what could be causing this? It almost sounded like breathing-

…Don't tell me.

I whipped out the magic lens- er, the Eye of Truth, and focused it on the temple itself. To my surprise- or perhaps not to my surprise- I saw what appeared to be a giant Goron sitting right in front of the temple, blowing cold hair out at us.

…I wondered why the wind had a bit of a dusty scent to it.

"Here it goes," I muttered, taking out the drums once more.

I played the lullaby as I had learned it, and just as with the smaller ones, the Goron fell asleep and proceeded to fall right in the gorge with a heavy thud.

"Yikes! What was that?!" Tatl gasped, zooming out of my hat.

"Yeah, was there an avalanche or something?" Anna asked, looking around.

"…It's nothing," I said, "Let's go."

They needn't worry about it if they had no reason to. Besides, if that thing was a ghost it couldn't be harmed from something like that…right? Well, at any rate, we made our way into the temple dodging giant snowballs and wolves…which alone was rather…comical, I suppose, but I wasn't going to complain. So far, I hadn't been attacked by a snowman or something equally ridiculous, so I would keep my mouth shut. Surprisingly, there was actually a far amount of lava in the temple, for being mainly frozen… It was truthfully a bit annoying, actually, as it was one of those dungeon designs with multiple floors…it reminded me of the Water Temple, but that could have just been all the ice. Aside from being annoying, it wasn't that difficult to navigate, though eventually I found myself in need of something that could melt ice…

"Oh, well that's lovely," Tatl huffed, examining the wall of frozen water, "What can we do about this?"

"Hm…maybe there's something in here we can use? Let's look around," Anna hummed.

Look we did, and what we found was a room with a rather…odd, ghost of sorts. It didn't look like a poe, nor any other type of creature we'd seen, but- as every new thing I meet does- it tried to attack us and thus the battle commenced and, as usual with any new foe, lasted just a bit longer than usual before it met its fate-

Come to think of it, I hadn't said that in a while…maybe-? No, nevermind it now, perhaps next time.

Well, at any rate, once the apparition vanished a chest appeared and I opened it to find…arrows. That was odd, usually in this situation I would find a new item…

"Well that's kind of…lame," Anna said, her wings drooping.

"Hm…hey, wait! No it's not!" Tatl dingled, whirling around the ones I had found. "They're fire arrows!"

"Huh?" Anna dingled.

"That doesn't make much sense, I'm afraid," I frowned, "I thought that was merely a magic technique-"

"And you learned it after getting an 'ice arrow' or whatever, right?" Tatl asked.

"Well…yes, but they had a specific magic aura to them, and I had the ability to use the magic with regular arrows after I used one," I said, thinking about how I had received the light arrows from Mae, "To put it simply, these do not seem like fire arrows, and I already have the ability so why would I really need these?"

"Hm…I think I know!" Anna dingled. "Kratos, try using a light arrow."

I was a little confused as to why she asked that, but I did as she said. To my surprise…it didn't work. …Puzzling, why-?

"You had that ability in the _future _remember?" she giggled.

…I suddenly felt very unintelligent.

"Future? Wh-? You guys make me so confused, y'know what? I don't even want to know anymore…" Tatl sighed deeply, "Whatever! Let's just take'em and go!"

I made no effort to protests and left before Anna could start making jokes at my expense. Still, there was something off about this…why couldn't I see the aura if they were in fact, fire arrows? Then, I suppose there were quite a number of questions I had that wouldn't be answered any time soon, like the increasingly annoying Triforce mark that burned into my hand on occasion. Well, there was no point in wondering about it when I had no clues with which to deduce a conclusion. It was best to focus on the task at hand. So yes, we proceeded onward and eventually found ourselves in a room with a large door, where a giant frozen monster stood before us.

"…Obvious, isn't it?" I sighed, rubbing my forehead.

"I'm guessing we have to unfreeze it?" Tatl asked.

"That's the thing, the second we do it's gonna attack us," Anna voice my thoughts.

"Well, I see no other way to get through this," I said, pulling out my bow, "You two can help by trying to figure out its weakness right now."

"On it," Anna dingled, zooming toward the large beast.

"Yup, leave it to us," Tatl bobbed a bit, doing the same.

They zoomed around it for a minute or two before Anna began to mumble.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"We can't tell!" Tatl explained, sounding rather frustrated.

"…All right then, stand back," I said, drawing back an arrow and focusing fire onto it.

I shot the arrow and the ice thawed, and I immediately drew my sword and shield, bracing myself for its actions… Which was, quite abruptly, to break down the two walls on either side of it and start running away.

"It's a big circular room!" Tatl said. "He's gonna come back around and charge!"

Splendid, as if I didn't have enough problems with 'ring' rooms. The last time I could recall was that one with the octocrok in Jabu-Jabu…which wasn't at all pleasant.

"Use the Goron mask, Kratos, and roll after him!" Anna said.

I supposed that was the best bet, I couldn't possibly catch it in this body. So I swapped my shape and began to roll after it. Rather interesting thing about that, as I did often wonder how Gorons saw where they were going while they rolled. Turns out they didn't see, they just felt the ground around them as they rolled…the vibrations in the ground, I suppose you could say. It was a bit tricky to get used to at first, but I didn't have time to complain at the moment.

"You're gaining on him!" Anna said.

"Use the spike-thingies!" Tatl dingled.

Another peculiar aspect of Gorons I hadn't known about, but it would serve its purpose here. It would be very effective to ram the beast if I had the spiky rock covering.

Despite my efforts, the whole battle ended up mainly a wild goose chase. The creature would change direction, charge me, or send spark of electricity. Not to mention it did make me a bit dizzy with the constant rolling and circular motion. When I finally did knock it down hard, I didn't waste any time. I shifted into humanoid form and stabbed the creature through the head, much in the same fashion of my final blow in Hyrule. I jerked up and around violently, letting out cries of pain before it ran blindly and crashed into the side of the wall, its body disintegrating as it collapsed. I let out a deep sigh of relief as it disappeared, truthfully very tired from the fight.

That and…

"Kratos, you did it-!" Anna chirped, turning back to Kokiri. "…Are you all ri-?"

I turned around threw up violently on the side of one of the rock ledges, hearing Anna give out an 'eye' before she patted me gently on the back.

"Yeah…feel any better now?" she asked.

I stood upright, wiped my lip…and then turned and vomited again.

"…Yes," I said a final time, coughing a bit, "I feel better now."

"Ew, gross," Tatl commented, "What'd you eat today…? Ew…."

"Yeah well- hey look! It's another one of those masks!"Anna said, pointing to the monster's remains.

I looked up and sure enough there was yet another large mask. We walked forward and I took it, frowning down at it as I did so.

"That's two now, right?" Tatl dingled. "Great!"

"Yeah, and the snow should stop now too!" Anna grinned. "Thank goodness, I was getting so bored of the cold."

Heh, typical Anna statement.

"Well, let's get going," I said, turning toward the ring of blue light that had appeared.

We stepped into it together, feeling that familiar warping/spinning sensation. This time, we did not see very much of that strange place we had seen prior, but we did catch a glimpse of some figure hiding in the mist just before we found ourselves…

"Where are we?" Anna blinked.

It was a rather beautiful, lush green meadow, a spring and little streams crossing the way around it. A large wooden cabin was built rather high off the ground, steps leading down to us as squirrels and various other small creatures zipped in and out of the supporting beams at the bottom.

"Hey…it's…the mountain!" Tatl dingled. "See, spring came!"

"Wow, that was fast," Anna stared, then laughed a little, "Things work so weird here- Hey look! A frog!"

"…" I looked down in the water, where a large blue frog was staring up at us.

"Isn't he cute?" Anna chirped.

Though I didn't care too much for the frog, I was rather relieved to be able to walk in the sun again. It was significantly warmer, and Anna was now racing over to a patch of yellow flowers that had sprung up, grinning as she picked one, showing it to Tatl. With a small sigh of relief I sat down in the grass, smiling slightly as Anna and Tatl began to argue over what was the more beautiful flower. This should mean that the Gorons would be all right as well, if the warmth reached all the way there…

"Thank you."

I flinched, hearing the voice behind me. With a quick jump to my feet I turned to see nothing behind me… I took out the Eye of Truth, finding the ghost of Darmani behind me.

"Thank you for helping my people," he smiled, bowing his head slightly.

"…You're quite welcome," I smiled back, "I hope that now you'll have some peace."

"I shall," he nodded, "I go on to the next life…I wish you luck in your journeys."

"Thank you," I nodded my head.

With that, he disappeared, leaving me staring at the emptiness before me.

"Hey, Kratos!" Anna called, running up behind me. "What's the matter?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing," I shook my head, "I suppose this means we can head for the ocean."

"Yeah, there's a problem with that…" Tatl hummed a bit, "You can't get there without a horse…"

Noishe.

"Well, that wouldn't be a problem if you and your little friend hadn't taken ours, then would it?" Anna huffed, hands on her hips as she glared up at the fairy.

"We'll just have to find Noishe," I said, frowning, "Though I'm not quite sure-"

"Well, it _might _be at the Romani Ranch…" Tatl mused, "That's the only place I know that keeps horses, we could check there."

"All right then, where is it?" I asked.

"Should be by the entrance to the southern swamp," she explained, "These two sisters run the place, they've got horses and cows and cuccoos…the whole shebang."

"Then let's get going," I said, heading for the path that lead down the mountain.

"Aw, already?" Anna frowned. "But it's so pretty here! Can't we stay a little longer?"

"Anna-" I began.

"Let's at least have something to eat, we haven't in hours," she moaned, frowning.

"…All right, fine," I sighed, "We can eat here, but then we should get going-"

"Sweet! A picnic!" Anna grinned, pumping her fist. "Heh heh, a beautiful meadow, food, and my angel-cake…"

At this she grabbed my arm, leaning her head on my shoulder.

"You make me so happy," she giggled.

"Yuck, I think I'm gonna be sick," Tatl muttered.

Anna was not disheartened- as it took much to dishearten her- and we settled for spending the remained of the afternoon in the warmth of the newly come spring. It was rather pleasant, admittedly, and by the end of the day we used the Song of Soaring to return to Clocktown to get that room that was still inexplicably under my name so we could rest for the night. Tomorrow was the final day…hopefully if all went well we'd be able to locate Noishe and then at least scope out the situation at the ocean before we had to reverse time once again. It was a bit arduous, really, how long we had spent here I wasn't sure, but at the end of it all only three days will have passed. Rather irksome it was time always became one of the most altered elements in my life- either one of them.

"Kratos, are you okay?" Anna asked, noting my expression.

"Hm? Yes," I nodded, "Just thinking."

"You did good today," she smiled at me, "I'm sure Darmani's happy now."

"Yes, I believe he is," I said, looking away from her.

"…That's not what's bothering you, is it?" she sighed.

"Not quite, but there's no point in wondering about it right now," I said.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

"Tch," I shook my head.

"Yeah, that probably was a dumb question," she sighed again, "Just make sure you get some sleep, okay?"

She gave me a light kiss on the cheek and then went to the opposite bed, leaving me at the window again.

How long would we be trapped in this stretch of time, I wondered?

**YAY I GOT IT UP! YEEEES- (falls asleep)**

**Cheresea: Rainy days get to here I guess…**

**Lloyd: Nah, she likes rain, I don't think she's feeling good.**

**Genis: Well that's what she gets for kicking us out of the notes earlier.**

**Lloyd: Yeah…review? **


	10. Chapter 10

**Well I hit a writer's block with Crulloyd at the moment, and while I wanted to write for 'Sir Lloyd' I hadn't updated this one in a while…I'm nodding off right now but I had the 'write mes' and since I hardly get those anymore I had to go with it. Sorry I take so long, but school is done for the year….so hopefully I'll get more writing in . **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Honestly, it wasn't enough that this place had people identical to those of Hyrule, but that they had ones that were of the different time altogether? Cremia and Romani, the two sisters of Romani ranch, both of them looked identical to Malon of Lon-Lon, though like the child and adult versions. If this wasn't enough, upon our first visit we found that both sisters seemed to be in a….trance, of sorts. Romani kept shaking her head and claiming she couldn't remember anything, and Cremia merely stared off dumbly into the distance. From what I gathered by the deserted ranch, apparently their livestock had been stolen, but something else was wrong here….

So naturally we had to go back in time and find out.

"Oh good, it looks like whatever happens hasn't happened yet," Anna sighed in relief, a small smile on her face, "Romani's actually running around."

Indeed, the younger sister was darting around a balloon of sorts she had tied to a crate, taking shots at it with what appeared to be a small bow. What best caught my interest, however, was the small red animal in the pen behind her….

"Hey! It's Noishe!" Anna exclaimed.

That it was.

Anna grabbed my arm and dashed over to the pen, grinning her usual grin as I quickened my pace to keep up with my captive arm. It was Noishe all right, and she certainly looked glad to see us.

"Good to see you**," **I smiled, patting her head through the bars, "We will get out of here shortly, don't worry."

"You look okay, Noishe," Anna said, surveying her with a sigh of relief, "good, otherwise we'd have to REALLY hurt skull-kid!"

"Let's go ask Romani if she can release Noishe," I said, "if we simply explain, I'm sure she'll give her back."

"Right, it's not like we'll take no for an answer anyway," Anna smirked.

"Heh."

We went back to Romani to ask her, however the girl seemed to be rather occupied with something or another, when we tried to talk to her she enthusiastically told us she was practicing….right before her smile fell, and she stared straight at us….

"…They, are coming…" she muttered.

"…They…?" Anna asked hesitantly.

"Yes, them," Ma- Romani nodded, her face stern, "They come in a ball of light at night…they come to the farm and they take the cows away…they'll take everything away. With their glowing eyes and the way they drift…"

I raised an eyebrow and Anna inched away slightly.

"I told Cremia but she doesn't believe me," the girl sighed, frowning, "But…you believe me, right? Will you help? If you help, I'll give you a reward!"

"Actually, we're just here for the horse," I said, pointing at Noishe, "You see, she belongs to us and we lost her-"

"Oh! So if I give you the horse then you'll help stop 'them'?" she grinned, her eyes lighting up.

"…Uh-" Anna began.

"One moment please," I stated, grabbing Anna's arm and walking off a little ways.

"What is she talking about? 'Them'?' Anna frowned, glancing at me worriedly. "Did she drink some spoiled milk or something?"

"I don't know, but by the third day obviously something happened here," I frowned, "Perhaps we should stick around, this might have something to do with the skull kid."

"Hm…I don't know," Tatl drooped, "But something is going on, like you said….yeah, I agree with Kratos, let's stick around."

"All right," Anna nodded, "she did say she'd give us Noishe back if we did that anyway."

"Yes," I nodded, "It's not like we have limited time to begin with…"

"M'kay then, so we're helping crazy," Tatl bobbed.

"Tatl-" Anna began.

"Yo! Romani!" Tatl shouted, flying toward the girl. "We'll do it!"

"You will?" she grinned, bouncing just a bit.

"I still have a bad feeling about this," Anna bit her lip, glancing up at the sky.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, Anna."

"…Things coming out of a ball of light from the sky…." she trailed, scanning the horizon, "You don't think they're…do you?"

"…They are what?" I repeated, frowning.

"Y'know…" she fidgeted a bit, glancing side to side, "…_aliens_?"

"…"

I sighed and walked off to Romani, who was still bouncing. Anna huffed and followed me, shouting about how it was possible, but I didn't bother trying to argue with her at the moment. Aliens, indeed.

* * *

Why is it whenever I disagree with Anna, she turns out to be right?

"Shoot it shoot it shoot it-!" Anna cried in my ear.

I let the arrow go and it pieced the levitating being, which let out a strange screech and swayed about before seemingly evaporating into thin air. Well, I knew very well what it was doing, I had seen enough people warp long distances to realize it could teleport. However, it was gone for now and I had its companions to worry about. A whole troop of them were closing in on the barn in the dead of night, and a distinct chill was in the air. Anna had joined Tatl in the air in fairy-form, alerting me where the closest threat was and leading me to it if possible. Surprisingly, the ranch dog proved to be a valuable asset, as it usually tracked down the nearest creature before Anna or Tatl could warn me of it. Sure it was incapable of attacking any of them, as for some reason they seemed invincible to anything but arrows (as I attempted stabbing one earlier and my sword merely jerked back) therefore it was me and my bow.

…My bow and I, that is.

At any rate, this hunt of sorts lasted into well into the morning when the glowing red ball of light from where the creatures had come returned, the lot of them, warping away, assumedly back to that light which must have been some sort of vessel. It vanished with a flash as dawn broke overhead, Anna taking her humanoid form beside me as she let out a sigh of relief.

"Ugh, that lasted forever…." She groaned, "Oh well, we did it, though! Great job, Kratos! Of course, I knew you could do it but…hey, y'know."

I smiled weakly as she kissed my cheek, Tatl settling onto my hat with a tired groan as the dog began running around in circles barking, his tail wagging out of control.

"You did it, grasshopper, cricket!" Malon- ROMANI chirped, running out toward us.

I sighed somewhat at the nicknames. When we had agreed to help her she decided that our names were 'too boring' and immediately dubbed us 'grasshopper' and 'cricket' respectively. Apparently it was because of our green attire, though she did proclaim Anna was a cricket because she was always 'chirping'….to which Anna assumed Romani meant she was talkative, which was rather but in an attempt to avoid the conflict I merely changed the subject at the time. Regardless, we had Noishe now, and we could finally make our way to the Great Bay. Presuming, of course, that we didn't run into another overbearing sidequest that we could get pitied into, but surely we couldn't run into another one so quickly, correct?

* * *

"Do you just like wasting time, Kratos?"

"Tatl, come on! You're the one who wanted to help Cremia!"

"Me? Weren't you the one who-?"

"Both of you, be quiet!" I snapped with a groan, my patience having reached its limit.

All right, so here we were in the back of a wagon Cremia was driving protecting her delivery to Clock Town. Apparently her milk was of high enough quality to steal, as there was a distinct possibility of theft if she rode to town on her own. Of course, it wouldn't be right to leave a young woman unprotected against the type of malefactors that would attempt theft to begin with, so….of course…we ended up helping her. Somehow I find that I'd like to blame Lloyd for this, his 'help everyone you come across' philosophy seemed to force itself upon anyone in Hyrule and the same proved true for Termina as well. Come to think of it, wasn't 'termina' similar to a Trietan word? 'Terminar', 'to end'? The name of this place was 'to end'? That was both unsettling and fitting, seeing as we had probably evaded the moon crashing into the planet several times by now….Wait, what was I thinking about? …I was rambling, wasn't I? Wonderful, the child mindset was sneaking its way into my thoughts again. Oh right, protect the wagon, yes, that could be easy enough. I had had my experience with petty thieves and the like, it shouldn't be too much of a challenge. And of course, it wasn't. Two masked figures had begun chasing us on horseback but they were easy enough to thrawt, though I would have to be buying some more arrows as soon as we arrived in town. Aside from being chased and attacked by thieves, this went pretty much the same every sidequest went. We helped them, they thanked us, gave us a gift and told us we would always be welcome there, etc etc…. This was all beginning to get extremely repetitive, I almost couldn't wait to get to the next dungeon.

"It's a cow mask! Cool!" Anna exclaimed, holding the 'reward' Cremia had given us.

"She said something about it showing membership to the bar, correct?" I frowned. "Why exactly would she give two children bar membership? Does Termina not have a drinking limit?"

"They serve milk there, Kratos," Tatl stated.

"…What? Then why would adults go there anyway?" Anna blinked, looking up at the fairy. "Seriously, why the hell would someone go 'dude I'm going to the bar all night…to drink MILK'?"

"I've found the easiest way to deal with the strange is simply to not try to figure it out," I sighed into my palm. "Especially in this world…"

"Yeah…" Anna sighed, "Well, anyway, we got Noishe back so we can get going to the Great Bay, right?"

"Indeed," I smiled lightly, "Let's get going, the sooner we reclaim Majora's mask the sooner we may break loose of this…cycle."

"I know what you mean," Anna sighed, rubbing the back of her neck, "It's starting to mess with my head when we keep going back in time and all."

"I'm with you there," Tatl groaned, "So! Great Bay here we come!"

We set off once again into Termina field, heading in the direction of the western bay which opened up into the ocean I had yet to discover the name of. Using Noishe we leapt over the barrier blocking our passage and soon found ourselves buffeted by salty winds, coming into view of the ocean.

"Wow!" Anna said, taking human form and trotting into the beach a little. "What a nice beach! I haven't been to an ocean in-…hell I don't remember, but it's so nice here!"

I couldn't help but smile slightly as I watched her, disembarking Noishe, she was always a fan of warmer weather as it stood….

"Heh, though the gulls are a bit loud-….Kratos? Do you see that?"

I shook out of my daze and noticed the frown on her face, following the direction of her gaze to see what it was she was looking at. There was a congregation of seagulls hovering around something on the beach, something which appeared to be a person. I went to investigate and Anna came after me, the two of us breaking out into a run when we realized it was indeed a person, a Zora, to be exact.

"Hey! Shoo, shoo!" Anna scoffed, flailing her arms at the birds.

"Are you all right?" I asked, kneeling down besides the injured man.

"Ugh…I…" he muttered, attempting to lift himself from the sand.

"H- Hey, don't strain yourself! You're hurt!" Tatl dingled.

Anna noted this as well and gently supported the zora as he clambered into a sitting position, the two of us setting him up as he continued in his attempts to speak.

"The eggs…" he groaned, his eyes half opened, "I need to-"

"Don't push yourself," Anna frowned, "You're not looking too good."

"No, please, listen to me…" he choked, looking at us with those sad dark eyes, "My name..is Mikau, I was trying to get back the eggs from the pirates…Lulu's and mine, our eggs…"

"Pirates? They took your eggs? Why?" Anna frowned, that familiar look of concern and empathy that I saw all too often.

"I…don't know but…please….save my eggs…" he winced, his breathing becoming labored.

He had already lost far too much blood, there wasn't much we could do, though I knew we had to at least attempt it. I attempted to bandage him up as Anna tried to coax him into drinking a bottle of red potion I had, but he could no longer ingest the fluid and instead choked it out, shaking his head.

"It's okay…I know I'm going to die…" he whispered.

"Don't say stuff like that! Come on, Mikau!" Anna scoffed, though you could tell she was afraid.

"Kratos, try the Song of Healing!" Tatl said.

"What?" I said, staring at her. "The last time I attempted that, Darmani…"

"He was already dead! It's not like we have much of a choice!" she dingled.

"Kratos, please try!" Anna said to me.

I bit my lip before I did as they asked, taking out the ocarina and playing the tune I had been taught. A strange expression come over Mikau's face and we watched as a small smile came onto his lips and he closed his eyes.

"Makes me…think of Lulu…heh…" he choked weakly.

"…Mikau? Are you okay?" Anna frowned, though she knew as well as I did that he wasn't.

"I wanted to hear her sing one more time…" he muttered, "at the festival we were- we were going to perform, if I could save our eggs, if I could get her voice back somehow…"

He let out a deep shuddering breath, his head falling limp.

"Please….save our eggs…please save her…"

Life left him and he plopped onto the sand. Anna stared at him a minute, her eyes watering before she choked a bit and hugged me, sniffing silently into my shoulder. Unsure of what else to do I patted her back, watching as the Zora's body disappeared and a mask clattered in his place. Another mask…it was no mystery what it would do, either. I merely stared at it until Anna calmed down, the two of us meeting eyes before I reached out and picked the mask off the ground, staring at it blankly. Tatl was unnervingly silent as well, though I presumed that was because she was masking tears of her own.

"…" I closed my eyes, "Well I assume we're going after the eggs, then. First we'll have to find out where exactly those pirates are…"

"W- We should head for Zora's Hall," Tatl sniffed, "I'm sure we should be able to find out something there, and maybe if we can meet Lulu we can figure something out."

I nodded.

"Let's do that then, do you know where this place is, Tatl?" I asked.

"It's somewhere out there," Tatl said, gesturing to the water, "You can probably find it with that mask…"

"…Let's go," I said, placing the mask over my face.

Oddly, this was the most human out of the transformations I had previously taken. The fins and other fish like traits of course were different, but for the most part the build was that of a standard adult man. Breathing under water wasn't exactly anything new to me either, seeing as I had had more than my share in such endevours while prattling around the water temple in Hyrule. Swimming through the water at such insane speeds, however, was very much something new to me. At times I was concerned Tatl and Anna might not be able to keep up, seeing as I was speeding along faster than I had seen some nautical monsters swim. Which was helpful, seeing as there were quite a few such beasts that decided I looked like a potential meal. In the end, however, I found the entrance to this Zora town on the bottom of the water in what appeared to be an underwater gate in the form of a large stone fish, its mouth open to serve as the entrance. After trotting inside and surfacing I removed the mask, surprisingly not wet though I had been seconds before.

"Wow! Talk about speedy…" Anna groaned, flying weakly by me, "My wings are achiiinngg…"

"Go ahead and rest in my hat," I told her, "I'll walk around and see what I can find out in the meantime."

"Mind if I join ya, Anna?" Tatl whimpered in just as tired a tone.

"Both of you go ahead," I sighed, "I'll let you know if I need your assistance."

The two of them gladly took up my offer, zooming under my hat to rest their tired wings. …Now that I thought about it, they were following me in the water weren't they? Even back in Hyrule, Navi had accompanied me underwater…why hadn't I thought of that before? Fairies could swim? I'd have to ask Anna about that at a later date. For right then I took to looking around the hall, which wasn't so much a town as it was a few rooms built into the walls, a shop, and a large clam shell set up as a stage. A few doors were finely decorated and guarded by some Zora's, which lead me to assume those rooms belonged to the 'Indigo-Go' band that Tatl had mentioned- …come to think of it, Mikau…didn't Tatl state that that was the name of the lead guitarist? Then Mikau had said they were supposed to perform-…and Lulu was the singer….oh wonderful, I'd take the form of a Zoran rock-star who had had secret children with the band's diva singer. This could prove to be very awkward, very quickly…I'd just avoid taking the Zora form if possible. …However I soon found that that was the only way to get anywhere. Every Zora I tried to inquire about Mikau and Lulu assumed I was a fan, and told me to run along and ask for autographs at their upcoming concert. Wonderful, now I'm marked as a fanboy as well, this day wasn't quite to my liking. Well, I guess I had to do this some way or another….

I wondered briefly if Lloyd would laugh if I told him I had to impersonate a fish-rocker. …He would.

**I actually got this done in two sittings! YES YES YES! whew…n.n' And I'm nearly done with Fallen Hero and I'm a third done on the last chap for Oyako Onmitsu…sweet, if all goes planned I'll have three stories done by next week and maybe one or two other updates n.n God I love vacations…**

**Hope you enjoyed!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Mkay, well, my little sister kept asking me all semester 'when are you going to update Legend of Kratos?' and I finally do so during Christmas break.**

**I fail.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

"You can't just read a girl's diary!" Tatl cried, obviously disgusted by the thought.

I sighed and looked at Tatl and Anna beside me, then down at the book that was splayed open on the desk, which was the only piece of furniture not demolished in this room. Having managed to get into the guestrooms via passing myself off as Mikau, we entered into the room of Lulu, the singer of the band and the lover of the real Mikau. The room was trashed beyond belief and judging by the discarded blades, the room had been raided by someone, most likely those pirates Mikau had told us about.

"They say she's lost her voice and this may tell us something about what happened," I told Tatl, looking down at the text, "We promised Mikau we would retrieve their eggs and Lulu may know something about the third giant we are searching for."

"What makes you think that?" Tatl asked.

"When is it every otherwise?" I sighed, shaking my head. "It's not like I'm going to be reading her diary to figure out her personal thoughts, I'll just use it to see if she knew anything about the pirates and why they would want her eggs."

"Can you even read zora script?" she huffed.

"I could read the signs in the hall while wearing the mask…" I trailed, "I suppose that'd work here as well."

"Well if that's the case why don't you just let Anna wear it?" Tatl asked. "She can read it."

"Why does she have to?" I frowned.

"Because she's a girl so it won't be as bad for her to read a girl's diary!"

I stared at her. Quite frankly that had lost me.

"Yeah…it might just be a little more appropriate," Anna frowned.

"Appropriate?" I shook my head. " I don't understand, if it's wrong for me to do it how is it any less wrong for-?"

Tatl bashed my head.

"Just give Anna the mask already!"

I growled a bit, rubbing my head before conceding and handing Anna the Zora mask. She gave me an apologetic smile and then slipped it on. I wondered briefly if she'd look like 'Ruto' and shuddered a bit, but was relieved when I found she had the normal Zora head, though her fins and form were significantly more elegant than the standard Zora, and like me she had green tints to her scales and a green dress. She opened her eyes and blinked, looking at herself and flapping a fin, testing it out.

"Wow this is weird," she stared, "I feel like tartar sauce would make me scream…"

"Hah hah," Tatl bobbed a bit in a manner that suggested she was rolling her eyes.

"Oh shut up," Anna huffed, glaring at the fairy girl, "Now just gimme a minute and I'll see what I can find out."

I moved out of the way and she began to scan the diary, her eyes flicking over it as her fins fluttered mindlessly, much like my wings used to do. She frowned a bit and then straightened, looking at me.

"Yeah it was definitely the pirates, but it doesn't tell us much else, though she mentions the band's leader in here...apparently he knows something, maybe we should go talk to him," she reported.

"Right," I nodded, "So let's-"

"Hey, who are you and what are you doing in here?"

The three of us flinched and whipped around to see a couple Zora guards, the two of which were eying us suspiciously.

"What are you doing in Lulu's room?" they demanded.

"This room is off limits, we're conducting a case after her egg-knapping," said the other, eyes narrowed.

"Oh! Uhm…sorry officers, look," Tatl buzzed over to them "We're friends of Mikau, we were just trying to help bring up some clues too, so-"

"Hey you're that little boy that was going around asking for autographs!" one pointed at me.

I glared a bit. Honestly, autographs? I hadn't been asking anything of the sort.

"Now now, officers, let's calm down," Anna chuckled nervously, "We weren't doing anything…naughty."

"Sorry miss, but- …" he scanned her, "….we can't just let this slide, no matter how…pretty the perpetrator is."

Anna blinked and stared and I flinched, my eyes widening before narrowing, my jaw gritted. Why that insufferable tuna-

"Oh? Pretty? Me?" Anna smiled and batted her eyelashes. "Why thank you so much officer, but please, could maybe let us go? I had plans later and I really didn't want to get in trouble…I'm a friend of Lulu's you see…I'm just…so worried about her…"

At this she put her hands to her eyes and gave a small sob. I stared at her, half angry and half disbelieving. She was actually trying to sweet-talk her way out of this? Then again, it did seem like the best option short of running for it…

"H- Hey, miss, don't cry…look …"

The guard looked at his partner, who sighed and looked at Anna as well.

"…All right all right, look, just you and your little friends here don't come in here again, all right?"

"Really? Oh thank you officer!" Anna cried, hugging the one who spoke. "I promise we won't!"

The Zora man began to stammer and Anna grabbed my arm, leading me out of the room without another word and quickly took us outside and around a corner, taking off the mask.

"Sorry about that," she said sheepishly, her head down, "But I figured that'd…be the best way."

"Hey, it worked it worked," Tatl laughed, "Nice job! That was pretty impressive."

I said nothing.

"Aw, Kratos, are you jealous?" Tatl giggled.

"I am not jealous," I said flatly, "I am merely…"

"Kratos-? Hey, I said I'm sorry," Anna's face fell, fingering the mask in her hands, "I didn't mean to- you know I would never cheat on you, dork, especially not with a fish."

I flushed a bit and cleared my throat.

"I know," I said, lowering my head a bit, "Forgive me- ...we should head for that band leader's room. Give me back the mask."

Anna nodded sheepishly and handed it to me and after checking to make sure no one was around I slipped it on. She changed back into a fairy and hovered up by Tatl, who was still giggling a bit.

"Aw, Kratos is jealous! How cute!"

"Tatl just leave him alone," Anna sighed, drooping her wings just a bit.

"Yes, please keep quiet," I muttered, "We have a job to do, remember? I'm 'Mikau'."

"Oh right, right," Tatl giggled, "So does that mean you're gonna have to sweet-talk that Lulu when we see her?"

"What?" Anna blurted, dingling in alarm.

Tatl laughed, zipping around.

"Hey, payback's a bi-"

"Someone's coming, quiet down," I hissed, looking around the corner.

"Oh! Hey Mikau!"

Another Zora man, though this one was a little more distinct. For one his fins seemed to cover his eyes and he had a very…laid back attitude and look to him. That and the way he said 'hey' made me think he was slightly intoxicated.

"Oh…hello," I said simply, scanning him.

"Dude, Ian was looking for you, totally ticked dude," he laughed, "I think he might be mad about our jam sessions…but I don't think he knows about us writing songs behind his back, hah hah."

He was definitely under the influence of something. Was seaweed capable of being a hallucinogen?

"But yeah dude, totally need to talk to Ian," he grinned, "M'kay budday?"

"Yes," I nodded, looking at him, "I'll get right on that."

"M'kay bud!" he grinned, slapping my shoulder. "I'll see ya around! Keep the fins damp bra!"

The three of us stayed silent as we watched him leave.

"Ian? So that's the leader? Wow, what a coincidence, we're looking for him and he's looking for us," Anna chuckled a little bit, "funny how that works out."

"I wonder what room he's in," Tatl whipped around a bit, "That guy just came out of the room right there…so I guess it must be one of those other two."

"That one guard told me that that was Mikau's room when I asked earlier," I gestured, "So it must be that last one."

We entered the room with little difficulty and found the band's leader at his keyboard. He apparently did know about Mikau and Lulu, and he knew a lot about the eggs as well.

"The pirates hide-out is by the coast, you can get their underwater," he told me, "the pirates probably have all the eggs in the base somewhere. I tell you it's strange…the sea goes weird right when Lulu loses her voice, and then she lays her eggs..what the hell would the pirates want with her eggs? You've got to get them back, Mikau."

"That was what I planned to do," I nodded, "I'll hurry."

"You better! Those eggs won't live long unless they're in the right kind of water, and I doubt those filthy pirates will know anything about that," he growled.

"So what do I do if they're sick?" I frowned.

"Take them to the marine biologist in the bay, in that floating house, he'll be able to take care of them there," he nodded, "oh and you'll need one of these to carry the eggs…just a minute…"

He rooted through the mess on his desk and then into the shelves, muttering to himself.

"I know I had that- here it is!" he nodded, pulling out a glass bottle.

"A bottle?" I frowned.

"Yeah," he nodded, "You need to keep them in water after all, duh, what's the matter with you Mikau?"

"Nothing," I shook my head and took it from him, "I'm merely- I'm just worried."

"Understandable," he nodded, then shooed me off, "Hurry up and get a move on!"

"Right," I nodded, going to leave, "Thank you."

"Just hurry up!"

And so it was we headed off back for the coast, following the vague instructions that he gave us. Along the coast, under water, but there had to be a more obvious tell-tale sign of their lair. As I swam around looking, I nearly ran into another Zora who was out and about.

"Woah, hey, watch it-! Oh! Mikau!" the Zora blinked, scanning me. "Oh sorry about that! My bad, look I'm a huge fan!"

"I..thank you," I nodded.

"Yeah well..what are you doing around here?" he asked. "It's awful far from the hall."

"I'm…" I trailed.

He scanned me a moment and then smirked, shaking his head with a knowing smile.

"Oh, I get it…don't worry I won't tell Lulu," he winked.

"What-?" I blinked, unsure what he was talking about.

"You're here to a get a glimpse of those sexy pirates, right?" he winked at me. "I hear they're all women, and they're all intensely gorgeous on top of that!"

"…." I stared at him.

"Hmph, I bet that's why YOU are out here, aren't you?" Tatl huffed.

"W- what? No- that's not-" he stammered.

"Oh bull, I bet that's why you are here!" she scolded.

"Oh lay off it, what's wrong with that?" he huffed. "Anyway I hear that there's an entrance around here somewhere but I can't seem to find it…."

"Hm, well at least we're looking in the right area," I said.

"Well let's head down further," Anna suggested, looking down at the water, "We're still not at the bottom."

"Right, let's go," I nodded.

"Wait- so you ARE here to see the pirates? Then why were you yelling at me?" the zora cried.

"Oh shut up already," Tatl bobbed him.

"Ow! Stupid bug, how are you even breathing down here?"

"I'm a fairy, stupid! That's how!"

"C'mon Tatl, that's enough," Anna scowled, grabbing her wing and flying downward.

Er…flying or swimming, whatever it'd be.

"Hey! Don't just blow me off!"

We ignored him. It didn't take very long before I set foot on the ocean floor, scanning the bottom of the cliff. There didn't appear to be any sort of- oh? What was this…

"Hey I think I see something!" Tatl dingled, zipping over to the object I had spotted. "It's some kinda wooden sign…there's a pirate symbol on it!"

"Great! That has to be it!" Anna dingled. "Go ahead and smash it open!"

"Why does everything require smashing?" I sighed, bringing my palm up to my face. "I could simply open it, if it's a door-"

"No it doesn't look like it," Tatl bobbed around, "It doesn't seem to have any hinges on it or anything…"

I sighed again. No, he was right, it didn't look like we had anything of the sort that would suggest it was a door. That'd mean I'd have to bust it open myself. All right then….how was it that I was supposed to do this? Something I had heard in the hall…oh yes.

…Ram it.

I sighed and backed up a bit, letting myself float up a bit and then getting into the speed-swimming position. With a burst of speed I kicked off and rammed the boards, and miraculously this did not seem to harm my head at all- though it did hurt my pride. There was nothing but stone behind it.

"W- what the-? I was so sure that had to be it!" Tatl whined, her wings drooping.

"Uhm…guys? Look," Anna tugged on my arm.

I looked where she indicated and saw that there were three other doors of the sorts. Splendid, I had to do that three more times? With any luck I wouldn't crush my neck vertebrae, but then, I suppose this body was more adapted to such things.

All right then…three more.

Luckily though, the door wasn't in the last one. I found the entrance on my second attempt. What was revealed was a tunnel entrance, it was dark and I couldn't see what was through it, but I had found our entryway.

"Great! You found it!" Anna dingled. "Let's go! We gotta get those eggs back!"

I nodded.

"Yes, it'll be difficult to see," I frowned a bit.

"Well let us go ahead then," Anna said, "We can light it up a bit."

"Or you could use that magic to get that electricity shield thing going," Tatl stated.

We fell silent before turning to look at her, blinking just a bit.

"Oh- you didn't know about that?" she dingled a bit. "Huh…"

"No, would you elaborate?" I frowned.

"Well when you swim you can make an electric aura...like an eel," she bobbed a bit, "You didn't know that? Really?"

"No," I frowned, shaking my head, "I'll attempt to do it though…I'm sure Mikau knew how to do it."

I took a gulp and closed my eyes, trying to – fish out- that part of me that held Mikau's essence in order to channel it, like I had done with Darmani. Hm…all right…

"All right, stay close," I said, looking at them, "That is, stay behind me, I don't want you getting hurt if this does work."

"Right," they bobbed and backed up a bit.

Allowing myself to float up I took off through the water and into the tunnel, finding myself surrounded by blackness and then…

Light.

My eyes widened but I didn't stop swimming, a discharge of purple and blue electricity had formed around me and was crackling in the water in bursts, illuminating the dark tunnel walls. I heard Anna and Tatl 'woah' from behind but kept swimming, not wanting to stop for fear they'd run into me and get zapped themselves. It only took a few minutes before I saw a light from up above and the tunnel end, alerting me to our arrival. Allowing myself to stop I swam to the surface and burst my head out to find I was in some kind of cave, and the smell of cannon powder was heavy in the air. I crawled out slowly, making sure there was no one around and took off the Zora mask, wanting to be smaller, so as to be less easy to be seen. I crept along the side of the wall and Anna and Tatl crowded next to me, hovering around my ears.

"I think we made it," Tatl whispered.

"Yeah, I heard people," Anna bobbed, "Be careful Kratos, this is probably their hideout."

"Yes," I nodded and then began creeping alongside the wall, "Try to keep quiet."

"That means you Tatl," Anna joked quietly.

"Hah hah," she pouted.

"Shush," I hushed them, making my way to the edge of the cliff we had found ourselves on.

We were over a large lake of sorts, and several boats were patrolling the waters, all with armed pirates that looked…freakishly like Gerudos.

Should I even be surprised anymore?

"Wow, what floozies," Anna huffed, muttering to herself.

"They don't cover much up do they," Tatl growled.

"…They're wearing pants," I pointed out.

"Yeah but …"

"Hm, now how to get past this…" I trailed, scanning the boats and the fortified wall. "There has to be some way inside."

"Try diving into the water," Tatl suggested, "Maybe there's some kinda waterworks you can swim through."

"You mean like a sewer? Ewww.." Anna shuddered a bit.

"Well if that's the only option we're going to have to take it," I furrowed my brow, "I'll slip into the water and then put on the mask and head for the bottom…you two keep watch for me until I get under, would you?"

"No problem!" Anna dingled.

"Yeah, we can handle that, be careful!" Tatl agreed.

I looked them over quickly and then made my way down to the water, attempting to keep out of sight of the patrols. The boats were timed easily enough, I just had to take care not to mess it up. I managed to get in fine enough and transform, allowing myself to sink under the water.

Well, this all seemed to be going well-

..Skeleton piranhas.

…of course.

**Yaaaaay it's done :D**

**Merry Christmas!**


End file.
